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  • Ellen Meiksins Wood, Neal Wood-A Trumpet of Sedition - Political Theory and The Rise of Capitalism, 1509-1688-NYU Press (1998)

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    159 vizualizări80 pagini

    Ellen Meiksins Wood, Neal Wood-A Trumpet of Sedition - Political Theory and The Rise of Capitalism, 1509-1688-NYU Press (1998)

    Încărcat de

    Hugo Nateras
    Teoria

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Descărcați ca PDF sau citiți online pe Scribd
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    A Trumpet of Sedition, Political Theory and the Rise of Capitalism, 1509-1688 Ellen Meiksins Wood and Neal Wood NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS Washington Square, New Yerk (© Ben Meisins Wood and Neal Wood 1997 [NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS ‘Washington Square New York N'Y. 10003 ibeayof Congress Cataloging-in-Pubicaton Dara ‘Wood, Elen Mest. “Trumpet of etion = polities theory and thers of cpt, 1505-1688 / Elen Meiktins Wood snd Nel Wood. Inches iiographial references and idx. ISBN 0-8147-9317-7 {Polis scence—Grest Brisin—History. 2: Economics Great, BriainHisor. 3. Coptaliem Great Braain—Hlstery.T Wood, esl ML Tite. JABLGTW66 1997 Sa0.01—de20 o-san77 Printed in Grea Britain Contents Aatncledgemens Preface Introduetion: What is Political Theory? 1, Two Centuries of Revolution “The Centelization and Unification of Government Socal Structure “The Changing Economy {A Century of Political Experimentation 2, ‘Sheep Devouring Men’: Thomas More, the ‘Commonwealthmen and A New Social Criticism ‘An Overview of Tudor Political Theory Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) ‘The Commonseeathmen 3, ‘AMultitude of Free Men Collected Together’: ‘Thomas Smith, John Ponet and Richard Hooker ‘Thomas Smith (1513-1577) John Ponet (15162-1556) [Richard Hooker (15542-1600) From Corporate Privileges to Individual Rights 4, “The Poorest He That Is in England’: Political [eas inthe English Revolution ‘The Road to Putney Politis! Ideas in the English Civil War ‘The Levellers and the Putney Debates Gerrard Winstanley (16092-16762) “The Radical Legacy 5, ‘A Multitude of Men is Made One Person't ‘The Polideal Thought of Thomas Hobbes “Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) The Elements of Loan De Cive Leviathan a 33 39 2 3 33 6 6 n 80 o 94 98 104 6, ‘Life, Liberty and Estate's The Political ‘Thought of John Locke John Locke (1632-1704) The Two Treaties of Government Locke's Theory of Property Improvement Gomchsin News ‘Some Additional Reading Index ne na nie 123 rent 135 138 139 1a FOR CHRISTOPHER HILL. Acknowledgements (ur thanks vo Gordon Schocher and Terry Heinrichs fo thee help ‘comments and suggestions. We are pleased that John Saville and Colin Barker encouraged us to participate in the sris of which this bool is » part; nd, of course, we are glad that Roger van “Zovanenberg at Pluto Pres had the good sense ~ or should we sy the courage? ~ to take on this series ta less than propitious [istorical Moment. We are also grateful ro Jane Ratstrick for her ‘careful and restrained copy-eciting, nd to Robert Webb at Plato for is various efforts in guiding the book durough the publication ‘process, Thank, 100, to Niko Prond at NYU Pres forhis nendly nd helpful interventions. “ust a word about the ttle of this book, We have chosen to include te please the ie of capitalism’ in defiance ofthe current ‘hegemonic wisdom among some ofthe most respected specialists {in the history of politcal thought, who are fond of repudiating “capitalism, let lone its ris’ asthe relevant histriel contest for carly modem political thought, in England or anywhere ese. Our Feasons for adopting this unfashionable stance should become earn the course ofthis book; bur we have lid out more explicit, find syttematic arguments, both about the "rise of capitalism’ and ‘bout general methodlogical ses having vo do wah the contextual fnverpretation of political thought in some of our writings cited in ‘the Additions! Readings at the end ofthis book. vi A-TRUMPET OF SEDITION Aria reckons among those animals which he cals Politique, not {nan ony, but divers others; asthe An the Be, &c. which though they be desta freon. they so ect ther actions toa common, tend, that their meetings are not obnesious unto any ‘editions. Irs vry true that in those creatures, ving only by sense and appt, theirconent of mindsisso durable, a theres no need of anything ‘more to secure it, and (by consequence) to preserve peace among thems then (sc) barely thle natural! nelination. But among men the eae ie othervice... [T]he natural appetite of Bees, and the like creatures, is conformable, and they desire the common good which among them differs nt from their privat; hose creatures which are voyd of reason, ee no defect, or think they see non in the administration of thir Commonciveales; but ins multitude of | fen there are many who supposing themselves wiser then others, endeavour to innovate, and divers innovators innovate vers way, ‘which i a meer distraction, and civil ware... [Blrute creatures, howsoever they may have the use of thir voyce to signify their fictions to each other, yet sant they that same art of words ‘which i necessarily requited to those motions ofthe mind, whereby {good ir represented tot a5 being better, and evil as worse then truth itis; But the tongue of man is a trumpet of warre, and sedition, ‘Thomas Hobbes, De ite V.5 Preface “The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe saw the rise of capitalism and the modem ‘nation-state’, the establishment of an Increasingly international economy, andthe beginnings of modem Colonialism, a well 9s revolutionary developments in culture and feligion, This was a turbulent time Of social and religious conflict, political upheaval and civil wer. Tt as eso atime of passionate ‘ebate and radical innovation in political ideas. Many of our con {eupererypoieal concepts and ideologies can trace their ancestry {w those debates and innovations, with thei wide-ranging effects ‘on our conceptions ofthe ‘stat’, cil sods, propert, political ‘obligation, individual rights, resistance and revolution. ‘Some ofthe mos far-reaching developments in political thought took place insisteenth- and seventeenth-century England in very particular historical conditions and in response to specific social Conflicts. The period roughly from the reiga of Henry VII (to use {he conventional periezaton to the socalled Glorious Revolution” fof 1688 encompassed two related historical processes: the rise of forerian capitalism snd the centralization of the English state “These long-term structural developments were punctuated by dramatic episodes: fom a series of serous regional uprisings nd tots in the siteenth century tothe revolution() ofthe seventeenth Ts hardly surprising th sch revolutionary historical develop- ‘ments should have precuced s particulary rch ad varied ferment ‘of socal and political ideas, indeed a revolution in European Political thought, across the whole pala spectrum: from the ‘defence of royal absolutism to the most radically democratic challenges to political authority, social hierarchy and private propery "Not the least remarkable feature ofthis inelectual history isthe feytent 0 which the agenda was set by radical thinkers and activists, ‘Even those who ultimately lst their evolutionary struggles st the terms of debate not only for their contemporaries but in many ways ferpltca tough ever sine, in Europe and elsewhere. Thi legacy leaty visible inthe ideologies of their direct descendants, but sno lss present in doctrines implacably opposed to thei eman= {Spetory aspirations: rom the American Revluton inthe eighteenth ‘entry to the rise of our familiar iberal, conservative and socialist ideas in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The infhuence of these early modern idegs and debates has been fl far beyond the time and place in which they fst emerged, and we are sil living ‘with their inheritance ody. ‘Our book explores the principal milestones in the development ‘of English political thought in this period, in conceptions of the state,‘ society its, consent, property, and so on. The book Aiffers from histories of political thought that reat ideas completely ‘part from the historicel conditions that gave rise to them. We Consider political ideas not as {reeflosting abstractions but as ‘esponses to, an reflecions on, the social, economic and political changes and conflicts marking the early years of capitalism ~ ‘changes and conflicts affecting political thought in specific ways ‘hat distinguished the English tadition ftom ethers in Europe. in this respect, our book also dies from other ‘contestua stories fof politcal thougt more concerned with deca contexts than ‘ith seca, political and economic developments. ‘We certainly hope that he politi ideas we are expliceting here will capture the imagination of our readers jurt ae stimulating nte- Iectual enterprises, the products ofinnovaive and exiting minds; but we alo hope that these ideas sil come to life asthe creations of living end engaged human beings coming to grips with theit turbulent world ~ people who can teach us something about the pplication of our own critical faculties to the political reals of four own time and place. ‘One fins! word on our intentions in wring this book. We have writen it witha view to inteducing an especialy important body ‘ot political ideas to an audience that may be largely unfamiliar wath ‘hem, We have tried not only to writin an accessible style but also to explicate this body of ets without taking too much knowledge for granted. At the same time, we are not leting our readers off | lightly bur sre assuming willingness on their pat to engnge with dificult idess. We alo believe that our interpretations and methods fre original enough to warrant the atention even of scholars who have a specislet’s Enowledge of the relevant thinkers an texts Peshaps Some readers wil think that, by addressing ore than one audience, te have fallen between twe stools. We prefer to think that te shall each a wide and diverse readership. Introduction What is Political Theory? In 1641 England was on the verge of civil wer. The great Enish philosopher and defender of royal absolutism, ‘Thomas Hobbes, fect Pars ering the wrath of paiementary opposition which, ‘encouraged by the London populace, had just impeached the Ikng’s chief minister. Writing in his selEimposed ele, Hobbes ‘oplsined why human beings could not vein peace and prosperity ‘without absolute state power to control them. Unlike oer socal fanimals which cannot reson, he sai, human beings can distinguish Derween ther private interests andthe common good. While bees ‘and ants agree by natural instinct, human reason makes for endless Csegreement, strife and confit and people lays sit in judgement fof the authorities that govern them, While ants and bees lack ‘speech with which to fornent rouble, the case of human beings is very diferent “the tongue of man”, Hobbes complained, "is & ‘wumpet of warre and sedition’ Hobbes might have added that human beings bave not been ‘content jst to voice thei troublesome views. They have devised ‘systematic mode of intellectual acuity the abject of Which i judge authority, to debate with each other about what constitutes ‘the common good, sometimes even to provoke “sedition” against fan authority Hat violates the erte’s standard of the common {food orto defend a contested authority against its rites. This Inelectual practices political theory, of which Fiobbs himself wes ‘one of the gresiest exponents. The tradition of political theory 2 ‘We know it in the West can be traced back to ancient Greck philosophers like Protagorss, Socrates, Plato and Aistotle, and it has produced a series of ‘canonical’ thinkers whose names have ‘become femuliae even vo those who have never tead their work: St Augustine, St Thomes Aquinas, Machiaveli, Hobbes, Locke, ‘Rousseau, Hegel, Mill, and soon. “The writings of these thinkers are extremely varied, but they do ‘have certain things in common. Although they often analyse the Sate as its, heir principal enterprise is criticism and prescnption, “They all have some conception of what constitutes the right and ‘Proper ordering of society and government. What is conceived 3s 2 A-TRUMPET OF SEDITION ‘rights often based on some conception of justice and the morally 00d life; but it may also be based on practical reflections about ‘what required to maintain peace, security and material welling. Some politcal theorists have offered blucprints of just sate (Others have specified reforms of existing government and proposals for guiding pubic policy. The foremart question has been who ‘ought to rile and how should rle be exercised? Underying such ‘question hs always been some conception of human nature, hose qualities in human beings thet must be nurtured or controled in order 10 achieve a right and proper social order. And when {questions such as these are asked, ozhers may not be far ofE Why, and under what conditions, ought we to obey those who rule us, and are we ever entitled to disobey them or rebel against them? “These may seem obvious questions, but the very ides of asking them, the very idea that the principles of goverment or the ‘obligation to obey suthority are proper subjects for systematic Feflection and the application of exit reason, cannot be taken for granted. Itrepresents a importants cultural milestone ws does ‘systematic philesophical or sienifi reflection onthe nature ofthe ‘universe, Itenything, the invention of politcal theory was & later, andin some respects more dificl, development han the emenence Of ‘natural pilesoply” or reflection on the nature of matter te arth and heavenly bode, "Thisis not the place to explore the historical conditions in whi political uhcory was invented. The important point ith there woe Distorcal conditions, tha politcal theory emenged in speciic seca and material conditions and net in others. Political theory since its invention bas been a historical product, written in specific historical contexts and responding specific historical conditions. TThis means several things. Political theodsts may speak to Us tough the centuries. As commentators on the human condition, "hey may have something to say for ll times. But they ae, ike ll human beings, historical creatures; and we shall have @ much richer understanding of what they have ro sy when we have some idea ot wy they sald it 10 whom dhey mainly sad it, with whom they were debating, expicily or implicitly, how the wort looked {© them and what they believed should be preserved or changed The great political thinkers of te past were pasionatly engaged inthe sues oftheir time are place, even when they addessed these issues from an elevated philosophical vantage point in conversation ‘with other philosophers in other times and places, and even when they sought to translate tei reflections inte universal and eles principles. Often, their engigements took the form of parisen ldherencetoaspecifc and identifiable political ease cr even (ity “ransparent expressions of particular interests, the interests of & INTRODUCTION 3 particular party or clss, Bu their ideological commitments could Elo be expressed in a larger vision of the good society and bhuman ideals. “The great politcal thinkers are not party hacks or propagandists Political theory is certainly an exercise in persuasion, But stools ate rearoned dicoune and ergumentaton, drewing on accumulated learning and experience, the works o ister, Philosophy, theologs, poychologs, anthropology, or natural science, in a genuine search for some kind of ruth, Bven those postmodernist thinkers today two sek to challenge the very noon of "ational discourse or ‘ruth tre seldom sble ro avoid conducting thir challenge traditional forms of debate and argumentation by adopting (in however distoree away) the very conventions and protocols whose lepitimaey they are puting in question. Tints book, we shal approach significant boy of pital theory tess as philosophers than as historians. We certainly intend t0 explore the idea of our period's mest important political thinkers, bur we shall shwaye treat these thinkers as living and engaged human beings. We shall test them as immersed not only inthe rich intellectual heritage of received ideas bequeathed by theit Philosopbial predecessors, but also in the daily socal and politica Practices of thr own time and place. We elso wate as histerians ff political thought Yor whom historieal materialism is an indisperssble rool of analysis. ue bottom line’ is this: "Human beings must enter ino relations with each other and with nature to urante their own survival and social repreduction, TO {Understand the human practices and cultural productsof any time land place, we need to know something about those conditions of Survival end social reproduction, something about the specific ‘ways in which people gain acces tothe material means of their own Survival and reproduction, about how some people gan access the labour of others, about the relations between people who produce and those who appropriate what they produce, about bow these relations are expressed in relations of poiticel demination, as wel ss resistance and strugale ‘Werwould certainly not say that atheorst’sideas can be predicted for read off from his or her social position or clas. We ere simply ‘tying thatthe questions confonting any politica thinker, however ternal nd universal those questions may seem, are posed to them in specific historical forms, in the context of spetifie practical ctvites, social relations, pressing issues, grievances and conflicts. ‘To understand the ansoors offered by poltical theorists, we must know something about the questions they are trying to answer, and Alferen bistrical settings pose ilferent sets of questions. To say this is not to claim that politcal theorists from another time snd place have nodhingo say to our own. On the contrary, touncerstand «political theory historically allows us to look at our extn historical ‘onion from aerial distance, from the vantage point of ether times and ether ides. Tt also allows us to abserve how certain assumpeions, which we may now acept uncritical, came into Being land how they were challenged in their formative years. Reading Politica theory in this way, we may be les tempted to take for ranted the dominant ideas and assumptions of our own time a place ‘Our abject inthis book, then is to explore particularly rut ‘momentin the history of Western politcal theory. Iris ne supising that sivteenth- and seventeenth-century England produced such fn explosion of political debate. This was, after alla peicd of Femarkable sociel and political changes, which inevitably engaged the pessions of many diverse people, generating confit and debate ‘among them. It was also a time when socal distress was matched bby 2 new sense of socil possibilities These gave rset both new rms of soil criticism and new visions of etter socal cede, together with defences ofthe existing oder against unprecedented challenges. ‘The politcal thinkers of the seventeenth century the Levellers, Hobbes, or Locke may be familiar; bu those ofthe previous aze, ‘ith the exception ef Thomas More and possibly Richard Hooker, remain largely unkown even to the educated reader: people ike John Pont, the Commonsealthmen, or Thomas Smith. The turbulent ‘century of revolution’, atime of evi war the regicide of Charles I, the Cromelian “Commonweal Restoration of the monarchy and the ‘Glorious Revolution” of 1686, i certainly better known than the previous century, Ye even schoolchildren are likly to have heerd something about themial ‘Opleits of Henry VIM, the Reformation and the foundation ofthe ‘Church of England, Queen Mary's repressive rule, the age of| lizabeth Tand the defeat of tre Spanish Amada. Nor should we need reminding that the sixteenth century vas the period of the English Renaissance, with is easury of iterary marterpieces by Sidhe, Spenser, Hooker, Bacon an, above sll, Shakespeare; ot {hat the seventeenth centry inaugurated scientific evokation with the pioneering work of Napier, Harvey, Boyle, Hooke, Sydenham and Newton, ‘Sour political theorists lived not only in an age of dramatic sci islecaticn bur als in an epoch of momentous politcal uphenval land Gazing cultural achievement, Finally, even i they could not put aname tothe structuel changes that they were witnesing they ‘ere supremely conscious of the very immediate and palpable ‘consequences of the economic in social developments that ere Taying the foundations for wht we now call expan, CHAPTER 1 ‘Two Centuries of Revolution ‘Two remarkable political and social changes, with far-reaching implications for futre word history, were aking place insistent and seventeenth-century England. One was the centralization of| [Eovernment and te unification ofthe Kingdoms the other was the fice and development of capitalism. ‘These two processes Were jntertvined and though ther beginnings ean be trace furer back, they moved to centre stage during the strong and vigorous regime ol the pliticaly astute Tudor monarchs. Other states in Europe = even France, with its growing ‘absolutist” monarchy ~ were throughout our period still subject to various fragmented and ‘competing jurisdictions, the legacy of feudalism, Political, judicial tnd even military powers were stil divided among monarchies, sistocraces, regions and autonomous cities, guilds and other Corporate bodies and there were multiple systems of lat, But by 1600, England had become unified state, with clear centre of poste, a national or ‘common’ law, a national representative body, fnd even national church subordinate to, and sustaining the unified State, This unique politcal unity was expressed in the famous formula, the ‘Crown in Pariamen TEnglend in the siateenth century was abo showing signs of new and distinctive economic processes. Properied classes in France, fer example sil depended for thei wealth woe great extent on direct, coercion ~ the exercise of their political, judicial and military (Centrseconomic’) powers ~ to squeeze surplus labour from direct, [producers and especially from peasants inthe form of rents and {axes. These ‘exirs-econtomic’ powers often included office in the ‘monarchical sate, but dhe also rested onthe remnants of feuds jurisdictions and so perpetuated the fragmentation of the state in France. In other words, political and jurisdictional powers were {conomicresources tthe same time, andthe French economy was non-capitalist forthe samme reasons tht the Prench state was not truly unified Tin England, the aristocracy didnot have the same independent hold on ‘extra-economic’ powers; butit did enjoy amore eatesive control of landed property snd the purely ‘economic’ powers that ‘sme with it~ in contrast to France, where much more land ‘emained in the possession of peasants, The wealth of the English Srl ae 6 TRUMPET OF SEDITION proper classes came to depend lesson appropriating labour by ‘irect coercion, les on possessing piece of fragmented political ‘or judicial power, and more on improving the productivity of labour, especially in agriculture. Landlords took their rents from tenants who increasingly behaved like capitalists, often employing ‘age labour, and producing cost-effectively in order to succeed in an increasingly competitive marke, what was ro becorne the rst truly national matker in Europe or indeed the world, A both irect producers and appropriators became more and more ‘dependent on the market, more and more subject to competitive pressures, «historically unprecedented process of selEsustaning ‘coniomie growth began to manifest self in England an for ale time nowhere else, “This distinctive economic system is what some historians have called "agrerian capitalism’ The Centralization and Unification of Government England was somewhat removed from the turmoil ofthe Continent bby is insular geography, sheltered from the constant threat of foreign invasion and territorial dispute so typical of ether Esrope ‘countries which occupied a single land macs. The energie of the kingdom could therefore be expended on the consolidation of| power within s clesly defined temtory without the exhaustion of| financial resources on the maintenance ofa large standing sem. ‘The teritoral unification and centralization of government had, _moreover, begun witha distinc advantage."The Norman comguerors {in 1066 fad implanted on the island a highly centralized feudal kingdom, uniting king and aristocracy in a joint political sn nnltary organization, constituted as an occupying force. In its “unitary organization, this Kingdom wa already signin different fom the other, more fragmented feudal monarchies of Europe [AL the core of the government from the beginning wes 8 representative body of great feudal notables with taxing and la making powers. ‘This representative body, unlike the regional ‘states of France, was from the starts uniter, national entity. From the outset, then, the English state was not just kingdom but = conelave of wealthy landholders who bore the burden of financing. its activites from ther own incomes derived from landed ents The state, in other words, was king and landed class, monarchy and Pahiment, together. Aled by a favourable geography with no insuperable physical Aivisions, the early feudal monarehs advanced ther centralizing cffors in vetious ways. Among the most notable was the crestion ofa unified law for ll Englishmen, che ‘common lew audicated ‘bya system of royal courts. ‘The common aw Was, in its erigns, an amalgam of existing custom end of Norman imports (chiely the land las), am essential purt of hich was the local inquest ‘which became the jury. The English legal system may have looked ‘chaotic in comparison with Continental las. The pured and ‘ordealy Roman aw, reintroduced to the Continent especially during the Renaissance, might have looked on the surface more systematic and coherent then the English commen le, which wes a complex Welter of precedents growing out of judgemade decisions in previous cases. Yer te apparently less “ational” and codified Eystem of English law was much more trly national than, sa, the lw in France, where Roman law stl coexisted with hundreds of local and customary legal systems as many as 360 diferent law codes even at the time of the French Revolution in 1789. In England, the common law, with the royal cours that applied it, was already becoming the preferred sjstem of justice (or all fee zen by the end of the thirteenth century; and by the end of oar period the process of nationalizing English law had been decisively Completed ‘Although the common law was supposed tobe the King’s wy it represents yet another example of the joint rule of King and tristocracy, the "Crovn in Paliament”. While the French nobility ‘vas sll insisting on ts own independent rights of jurisdiction (and the economic reources that came with them) against the jul and legislative powers ofthe king, the English srstocacy ‘id something else: instead of asserting its own aterative system ‘of law and jurisdiction against the kings ly, it claimed, through PPriiament, share in the common law self This law wes originally ‘sido be not made but ‘discovered in cstom nd precedent dating from ‘time out of mind’, enunciated by the King’s cours and ater by various courte and judges appointed by the Crown. But ‘Paliament, even in making new law, might clam tobe discovering ‘orperfectng the common law, ving new legislation te authority fof ancient custom; and Parliament increasingly invoked (often fnvented) common lew precedents to Support its own rights and powers ‘Under the Tudors the powers of government were centralized and consolidated. The personalized rule, together with the fdministrative and legal fragmentation, of feudalism were transformed into en institutional oat more akin to what ve think of ts a ‘modern’ state, though the process would continue for nother century or more. Henry VIN, through his minster, the Sshrewe! Thomas Cromwell, and Elizabeth advised by Rebert Ceci, ‘managed to work csely with Patiament not only in forging esate system of lew and law enforcement but aso in shifting the locus ‘of day-to-day governing from the royal household toa small central iets I 8 {A-TRUMPET OF SEDITION Privy Council under which a bureaucratic administration began to develop. One infvental historian has elle this process ‘the Tudor ‘evolution in government’ endl though this formula my be an over~ Simplification, there can be litle doubt that under the ‘Tudor ynasty the centralization of the English state advanced by prea tides “The Reformation Settlement of Heney VII was another major evelopment inthe formation ofthe English state The foundation of the Church of England was not just an ecclesiesticel and theological revolution but sso politic! milestone, placing the new “established” church under the “supremacy” of the Croven in Parliament. This eliminsted yet snother competinglocus of power Within the sate and also provided avery useful ideological suppert forthe Tudors’ centralizing project. tthe same ine, the dsolaion of the monasteries and the sale of church lands supplied a rich Source of royal income and patronage, while enlarging the landed eristocrscy ‘Central contol of local government was tightened by Bizabeth, gain in collaboration with the landed ratocacy ating a justices fl the peace lords eutenant and their deputies, Regional councis in Wales and the north ere brought under the dtection ofthe Privy Council, and Ireland was subdued and partially contrlled bysmiler counel in what can be called he fist major sc of Engish imperialism. Although lacking standing any, Bizabedh egularced fhe local musters and instiutionslized traning under the lords lieutenant andthe royal navy, though smal, became a formidable fighting force. Even inthe absence ofa standing amy, the central sate in cooperation with the landed class, ponsesed primacy of coercive power unlike other monarchies in Europe which stil had to compete vith the private aris of pret nabs, while the [English aristocracy had become the most demilitarized ruling ass in Europe. At the century's end, the Crown was wealthier, more Powerful, and enjoying greater prestige than ever before. The “Tudors Had welded the English inte people increasingly avare of their national identity and had crested « edgling modem ‘The fact that one of the Tudr state's most important innovations was @ new system of poor relief ~a more nationally uniform and "ystemati form of relief than elsewhere in Europe, based an & poor ‘ate or compulsory tak ~ reveals great deal about the prevalling Socal conditions. Throughout the process of stteformation land no doubt acting as strongincentive to advance it~ the Tudor period was plagued by the most severe economie problems, an Increasing crime rate, vagabondage, local disorders and maior regional revolts. Rural protests in the fifteenth century had been "ypiealy tenant rent strikes, From the Tudor regime unt the iit TWO CENTURIES OF REVOLUTION ° ‘War inthe seventeenth century, this form of unrest was largely replaced by ani-encosure ios, Vielence against property rater than persons was the general rule, although at times, particularly after 1590, rural uprisings spread and invelved much more social protest, sometimes touching of fullscae revolt, a nthe Enslow Fill Rebetion of 1596 and the Midland Revel of 1007. Iewas during ‘helater uprising that the terms ‘dger and level seem to bare rade thei fist appearance the former applied vo those who filed inditchesmeant for draining and hedgerows, the later to destroyers ‘othedges intended for enclose. Local industrial disputes slo broke ‘out throughout the period among weavers in textile rowns. London ‘was certainly not immune to roubles, notably the Evil May Day oting of 1517; but in general the city was spared such major Conflicts before the 1580s. ‘Thereafter, and leading to the period of civil war, unlawful gatherings, rots and even insurrections ‘muliplied, ‘The London populace became a major social fore, Secisve factor, as we shall see, in bringing sbout the Civil Wer and after the Restoration, violent crime increased and personal sft) became an ever-mounting problem. In the century before the English Revolution, the peace ofthe calm was gravely threatened by a series of major regional revolts, Betveen 1450, when Jack Cat's force of discontented Kentish sentry and peasants occupied London, and the outbreak ofthe Cv ‘Warin 1642, nearly a dozen such revolts took place, most of them in the fast half of the sixtenth century, beginning sith Black ‘Michael's Cornish uprising af 1497, flloedt by the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire end the nerwest and ending in 1549 with the suppression ofthe Western Rebellion in Comal and Devon and Kets Rebelion in Norfolland Sol, ‘These were upheavals of sizeable proportions, involving thousands ‘of men on both sides, motivated by 4 complex of grievances — predominantly religious in 1536, for example, but in 1549 mainly economic: Queen Mary’ reign war disturbed in 1553-54 by the Kentish forces of Sir Thomas Wyatt, 2 wealthy landowner who marched on London and got as fa as Southwark, Iisa telling sign of Elizabeth's fm grip on royal power that ‘only wo major revolts erupted during her 45 years on the throne: the Northern Rebellion of 1569-70, last gusp of feuds ‘Patcularism; and the Enslow Hill Rebeon of 159% in Oxfordshire ‘guinst enclosure. Many of the grievances thar prompted this lunrest remained unresolved, but Hizabeth had for a time ended internal divisiveness and insabilty, With a gest del of provocetion from the fist wo Stuert kings who succeeded the Tudors in 1603, this leracy of peace, after decedes of tension berween Crown and Partismery, finally ended most dramatialy in Gil war. 0 A-TRUMPET OF SEDITION ‘We shall have more to ay later abou the momentous events and ‘consequences ofthe Civil War. Bur while we are on the subject of the Tudor state-building project, itis worth remembering thet, though the seventeenth century wast be marked by unprecedented revolutionary ferment, the unified state power crested in the previous century survived not ony the exceution ofthe king but ‘olen, prolonged and wide-ranging social wpheaval. Nevertheless, the success of the sate did not eliminate pervasive social problems; nor di the Tudors complete the process ofstate-cenrlization, Tacking a standing ary, 4 regular system for collecting revenues, and an effective apparatus of sdministeation and enforcement that ould reach into every corner ofthe realm. These deficiencies ‘would haunt the Stuart kings Social Structure [England in our period was an agrarian, pre-industrial and patriarchal socety but well before the Civil Wart had lange ceased to be 2 eudel order in any recognizable meaning of the term, while ‘agrarian capitalism inthe sense we have defined i, was making Slow but sire headway. Society was hierarchical, fury rigily| Givded by status and cass, The fundamental status demare twas between gentlemen and non gentlemen. Gentleman status, Cutting across class, was usually but not always dependent on family and landed property, and often on education, or some ‘combinstion of these factors. "True gentlemen did not have o rely ‘on physical labour for living and included the peerage, gentry, ‘Professionals some wealthy Businessmen and higher public oficial, ‘The distinctions of status Were admittedly hazy, especially a the ges, but there canbe litle doubt that between the unambigwous frtremes there were vast diferences of respect and deference ‘More consequential in determining the conditions of life were the major class divisions, At the tp stocd the landed aristocracy, landlords belonging either to the ttuler peerage or the gent. “Together with tei families is aitocracy aecounted fr about 2 pet cent of the population by the mid-seventeenth century Wealth, stars and power rested firmly on the possession oflanded property, and the afistocracy held sbout 70 per cen of eatvatable Fang, avery lerge proportion by European standards, They clearly constituted a ruling clase, dominating society and government, ‘specially through Parment~ tiled peersin the louse of Lords, the gentry and thers in the Commons. Here, agzin, England Uitfered, for example, from France; fr while people stl tended to tlk about ‘estates ofthe realm, the (wo houses of Parliament represented not two distinct estates lke the nobility and bourgeisie "TWO CENTURIES OF REVOLUTION n of France) bur essentially the same properted class ~ wit, for ‘example, 2 father in the Lords and his son inthe Commons, ot fone brother in the upper house and the other in the loser. “There was also a class of wealthy townspeople, of indeterminate bur fairly small numbers: prosperous merchants, financiers, ‘manufacturers, professionals and administrators. Although some sen such as these sat in Parliament they were under represented ‘While sparsely populeted rural arese might have a member in Parliament nly those towns already incorporated by some abtary the past had representatives ~ which meant that 2 growing ‘Manchester could lack the parliamentary franchise Below the landed srstocracy, there was @ broad range of landholders, from prosperous (0 “middling” and downright impoverished Geeholders and tenants. Among the trans, typically ‘Jeomen’ (who were often ako freeholder), were the prosperous ist farmers on whom the landlord class wa increasingly ‘pendent forts wealth. At the upper end the yeomany’ was hardly ‘Sistinguishable fom the gentry and those with suTicent freehold propery enjoyed the perlimentery franchise. Below thera were Smaller farmers, freeholders or copyholders; and together wath their urban counterparts, small tradesmen, craftsmen, lesser professionals and efficas, they comprised 20-30 percent of the population. Depending on regional variations and repeated changes In electoral regulations, especially throughout the seventeenth, ‘century, seme of these fess prosperous men might have the tight to vote; but the most generous estimates of the pariamentary Iranchise even athose ines when te ruling class wie! ro mobilize the people against the king by manipulating the electoral system, put the clectorate st somewhere between 25 nd 40 percent of the {dul male population, for those relatively brief moments nthe Seventeenth century when the feanchise reached its highest points Sil, beginning in the 1620s, here was growing popular involvement in electoral politics, aswell asin the streets, |The smaller propertybolders, end especially farmers, were an increasingly endangered species, es 2 growing concentration of| land and dispossession of smalfolders produced an ever sharper ferentiation beeween large proprietors and epropertless mass Alreacly inthe later half ofthe seventeen century, there 8 propertyless majority comprising as much a, of perhaps even ‘ore than, 60 per cent of tie population. This impoverished and Aisenfranchised multitude conmotuted a rural and urban workforce, though full-time wage-labourers were stl & minority ‘While most men were excluded from the political nation solely fon the grounds oftheir class or relation to property, women of ll ‘lasses were excuded from the franchise and from ofc, ruled out by theirsex. This political exclusion wes, of cours, in keeping vith 2 A-TRUMIET OF SEDITION the generally petriarchal character of English society. Even in the Seventeenth century, when women would be mitantly active in Fede religious sect and indeed in promoting the pli hts ‘of disenfranchised mals, and when all Kinds of moral norms were challenged, inchuding the prevailing atitudes to mamage and felatons between the sexes, these patriarchal assumptions about politics were stil so much taken for granted that radical women Fo less than their mele counterparts in general accepted thatthe political sphere belonged vo men "These atitides ironically existed in an age when « number of exceptionally talented and well-educated women governed as regents (Catherine of Aragon in 1513 and Katherine Parr in 1544) nd es reigning. queens! Mary (1553-58) and Elizabeth T (1558-1603). Below this clvated sphere, and possibly following ‘the example ofthese royal models, thad become fashionable for the mostly literate entiewomen 1 be given humanistic schooling (Thomas More, stom we shall be discussing in the neat chapter, ‘was a pioncerin this espect with his own family), and some made Valuable contributions as translators and authors. Their male Inentors seem tohave thought that by occupying geniewomen with studies and learning, their tendency to idleness and boredom ‘Would be checked their propensity to mischief thwarted and ther piety and chastity preserved. Tn sharp contrast to these privileged women, atthe base ofthe social pyramid, were the oversbelming number of women, most ‘of them probably literate. In general, they led fives of unreieved toil, overburdened by caring for thelr fies and households, and ‘often by extside labour as demesties or, before marviage livin in agricultural Isbourer, “servants in husbandry. ‘The perpetual ‘Grader ofthe often blk Hves has been immortaize by Thomas ‘Tus’ lines serve fora dae, fora week, fora yereJFor hie time, forever, while men cvelleth here. ‘What, then, were the major social changes in our perio? By the Civil Was, the peemge ad cessed tobe feudal warrior class some ff them turning to commercial investment to supplement their everies from landed property and subsidize their hacurious way of life. Their numbers had swollen under James I, but they were beginning to lose ther polit grip ifonly temporary es the House fof Lords gave way tothe gontry-dominated Commons, which Was ‘becoming the main moving force ofthe state. While the nobility had increased under the Tudors, for some time before the Civil ‘Wear the soeial structure had frozen, only to thaw out again in the later sesenteenth century. Wealthy merchants and entrepreneurs nay have succeeded in permeating the peerage and gentry from ‘xr times unt the Civil War, but thir presence in the Commons remained no more than about 12 per cent. Before the century's end, small an miclng farmers were being squeezed out at arate ‘more rapid than ever before, and landholdings were becoming ten more concentrated in the hands of «fe. “The plight of the Isbouring clas throughout our period was sggravated by rural dspossession and homelessness, nemplyaent, ‘high prices and inflation, In their struggle for surval, many Inigrated to the towns and particularly Landon. Eventhough their imiserable lor was to some extent relieved bya gradi increase in ‘eal wages ster the mik-seventcenth century, the total poor relict fate rose by one-third in the last two decades, and in London their ‘misery assumed slarming proportions. Te chasm between rch and [poor vne grossing ever sider and degper, the sich getting vicher| land the poor becoming poorer. ‘The Changing Economy ‘Some teling population figures wil help toiustrate the economic ‘changes taking place in our period. Berween 1500 and 1700, Engen!’ popltion gree substantially, particulary in the soccer ‘century, fem something ever wo milion in 1500 to over fv milion Jn 1701 (with a dip in the later half of the seventeenth century) (Other European countries slzo experienced population growth, but inne respect England's demogrephic pattem was distinctive. The percentage of urban dwvelers more than Goublein that perod ome Irstrtans pur the figure by te late seventeenth century at just uncer ‘8 quarter of the total population). In France, by contrast, the proportion ofthe rural population remained relatively stable til “amounting to between 85 and 90 percent atthe tine ofthe Prench Revolution and perhaps well int the nineteenth century. Bren more ‘remarkable than the general shit rom country to towrn ia England ‘asthe sagzering population growth of London in our period rom about 60,000 people in the 1520 to about 375,000 by 1700. A ‘elatively modest urban centre by the standards of Europe's main ‘ties in the late middle aes, it soon dwarfed other English towns land became larger than Pars, Rome, Naples or Milan indeed the Tangest ety in Furope, “This changing populstin pattern was both asyptom ofakeady signiicant economic changes and 2 majceactr in future economic developments. The growth and changing composition of the ‘population testifies to an increasingly procuctive agriculture, {epable of sustaining an undsvally large nurnber of people no longer engaged in agricultural production. These demographic thangs alo rellect the changes in weil property relatonsthat mage these improvements in agricultural productivity possible and necessary, including the concentration of property and the lispossesson of many smallholders. In the eighteenth century, ‘when peasants sil constituted the vast majority ofthe French ‘population the total agriculrral output of France would be roughly {hesame as tat generated by a much smaller number of aziultral producers in England. Because of the grossing pressure of population on food and other resources, average prices meveased some six or sevenfold between 1540 and 1650, the so-called ‘price revolution’. Landed rents also increased while woes filed to keep pace with inflated prices, ond gradually increasing wages were hardly enough to Sleviete widespread poverty. But despite these economic dials, Or indeed because of thers, and in inereasingly competitive Condens ricultaral productivity was stimulated. Tenant farmers whose rents were soaring Haxtened, with the encouragement of Tandlords, to increase thir output, reduce their costs and raise thee profits "In various ways the migration of people fom the countryside, sshere they had let tei iveinoods, to Landon and to a far lesser {Extent olher towns, bed farteaching effects on the economy. Tondo, tleste in ize, with nova n population, was becoming the nation’s centze of consumption ~ nt just for kixury gods but for basic necessities hike food ~ and the hub of a countrywide Cistrbution network, the heert of oth domestic and international trade. The metropolis began to set prices and dominate local and Fegional markets. Landon, in ober words, was the centre of whet ‘as becoming the word's Gest integrated and competive national Tnarket; and in these new conditions, profits would be based fore and more on costelficent production, particularly in Szviculture, instead! of the age-old principles of “buying cheap” in fone market and “selling dea in another. Capitalist ariclture, specially in the east and southeast of England, was the driving force behind these tendencies, sided by improving transport faclites and the eeation of * complex network of business and credit arangements ‘At the heart of these transformative changes was, then, the dynamo ofthe English economy, agrculere. If England was to be the frst industrial capitalist nation bythe aie-nineteenth century, ‘the conditions for tha development are to be found in the capitalist Bgviculture of the siteenth and seventeenth centuries, in the rowing productivity of sgricultare and in the underying social Property relations which created both mass consumer market and “labour force forthe production ofcheap everyday necessities, ike food and textiles. “The historical reasons forthe eistnctve configuration of gratin relations in England are many and complex. For our purposes = {fev essential points nee tobe stressed, One fundamental condition “TWO CENTURIES OF REVOLUTION 15 was of course, the unusually high concentration of and in the hands (of large landlords from very early ony and this also meant thst an “unusually high proportion of land was worked by tenant farmers ‘ther than by ovner-occupers. Incresingly, the conditions of these tenants leases were uch that they were obliged to compete with bother farmers, not only to meet rent that Were subject to market pressures hut even to gain leases in the fist place. There Was in ect, # growing market in leases. Tenants were compelled to fespond to these pressures by enhancing the productivity oftheir holdings not, in the fist instance, msinly by technological innovations, but by improving methods ef production, specialization, cost-cutting, and so on- One significant factor that enabled ther te respond by changing their methods of production was the fact that lend in England was, ex we shall explain in a moment, increasingly less subject to regulation by custom and the village ‘community, in contrast, for example, to peasant farmingin France ‘Successful farmers nequired new leases and ineressingly employed wage labour. These who failed went under. At the same time, Ianalords who depended on rising prfits from land bad a strong incentive to encourage thee tenants to improve" ther propertics. “They competed for innovative snd productive tenants, cooperated with them in mattere of mutual concer such as capital improvements, sought to enhance the preductiity oftheir home farms and even became leaseholders themselves. The competitive pressures imposed on the agricultural market by these productive {enants and their lendlords inevitably spread to other kinds of farmers too. Where ited labourers were employe the exploitative ‘Pressures to increase productivity wer, ofcourse, passed ca to them. ‘Because ofthis changing system of propery relations, England in our period experienced an early sgsicultural revolution which entailed the introduction and widespread use of new techniques land methods of husbandry. Foremost among them, and a source fof constant complaint from smallholders, was the enclesure of ‘open fields which had been cultivated under regulation by the village community, as wel es the enclosure of wasteland and the ‘common land upen which many smallholders nd others depended {or grazing, wood snd other necerties, Enclose’ did not jus, ‘or even necessarily, mean closing in or Fencing ffs piece of land, ‘The real essence of enclosure war the extinction of customary rights ~the traditional rights that permitted people to make use ‘Various ways of land held in common or even “privately” ~ for ‘xample, the right to gather wood or to collect the remnants of harvests: Encloruteslvo meant tht the community was exuded from the regulation of production. It cig, however, often involve ‘encing or especially the panting of hedges and the digang of ditches, ‘which had the advantage of providing better shelier and drainage 16 [A-TRUMPET OF SEDITION for the felds, and tighter control over livestock and crops. Often imsocited. ‘with enclosure was the practice of engrossment, the comolidation of separate heklings into one estate bY egultng imervening properties so 38 to facilitate s mote efficient Sgreian operation "More elfsent management ofboth large andl small bldings was accompa by the meticulous keeping of records of al transoctcns lind the use of account books, Tehnical improvements were aso intodueed and widely imitated by fermers concerned with broduct) for empl converte" or up andl down’ husbandry, lernating cultivation with Ell periods; crop rotations drainage Sf marsh and fenlands; and the use of new equipment like ‘whet plows. ‘Drofchungry landholders and middlemen, caught up in the competitive struggle, so rerorted to questionable and much [elated business practices: rack renting’, the imposition of annul ‘Tents equivalent fo the whole annual value of the holdings “ease~ Tnongering, the buying up of lesses from poor tenants then Subletuing to them at higher rents and eviting them for non peymenty forestaling” and “regratng’, the busing up of specific otamodities in order to corner the market and sell t higher than ‘oral pices; not to mention the dubious standards of weights lind measures in these transactions. ‘Capitalist agriculture did not suddenly sweep the English countryside, The majority of English farmers whether owners or enantyprobably sill operated trditional family subsistence farms, ‘Shetl in the pastoral and forest regions of the north and west. ‘Rdsanan capitalism developed primarily in the corm and mixed com ieSivesteck downlands of the south and cast, probably Prtdomsnating over other kinds of agriculture there before 1700, [there area the typical structure of agrarian social relations was the tuts oflandlonts living on ents, expitaist tenant farmers on ‘ofits and farm labourers on wages (dough it shouldbe said that Tenants who were themselves direct produces, even without wage [ebourer can be considered part of this agrarian capitalism, subject to the tame competitive pressures to improve productivity) This [rangement would eventually become widespread thoughout the unt, es cialis farming rode inroads everywhere, by the end SPthe ghtcznth century: but long before that, the distinctively Productive agriculture in these areas, cogether with the social Pemsequcnces of agrarian capitalism, was not only affecting the ‘Shale efsuccessin the matket for otber farmers but determining {he ezomomnie and political direction ofthe whole countr. “aithough no truly spectacular Hise in total output occurred in our period there was certainly an increase in output per uit of Work, nig smaller number of agricultural producers to sustain & larger number of non-producers. Steady progress was made in sting the stage for wht was to happen later in the eighteenth ‘ntury. We lack any fim or comprehensive data but the output ‘flivstockand com, as wells oxber ere increased substantially to keep pace with population growth, despite the inflation of food prices andit did so with diminished fore of farm workers, many Eriwhom had gone to urban centres. By the late seventeenth ‘Century, gran end cereal production hed risen dramatically, beyond ‘Somestie needs, enabling England tobe leading exporter ofthese ‘Commodities The stndesin agriculture placed England, in the next ‘Century inthe exceedingly favoureble position of being ableto feed Sha clothe an exploding urbsn, non-faring population that was te supply the workVoree forthe industrial leap forward ‘While agricultural advances could nor be matched by those of the manufacturing ancl commercial sectors, even here headway was far from negligible. Capitalist aprculeure was encouraged By the fecelerating demand for the export of woolen textiles. Since the ‘elit cetury ra woul had been te leading export tobe replaced {nthe fifteenth by woolen tenes the production of which greatly ‘expanded inthe next two centuries, not only forsale abroad but Sito for the home market. Enormous operations by capitalist rovers, especially in the south and east, heped to satisfy the need far raw woul To be woven into textiles by the thriving industry of| ruta cottagers The weaving, electing, finishing and distrbution Of cloth for export and home consumption was organized by Capitalist entrepreneurs. So rural England was the birtplace not ‘nly of agravian capitalism But aloof English capitalist manufacture ithe production of textiles. Other forms of manufacture were {ining # foothold too, s0 that by our period's end, an ever. fperessing labour force was producing a greater number end variety ft goods than evr belo, inclading esther and leather goods metal predocts and building materials, Shipbuilding and salt production [ho surged forward, Most ofthe manufecture was sll done in small Esteblishment though one major except was the dockyards of Chatham and London, the latter emplying 45,000 workers in the To50s. Increasingly, larger units Were also appearing i the production of salt saleloth and sik. ‘Commerce kept pace with the changing agricultural and manfactaring sectors. Exports largely textiles, and imports had ‘more than Goubled by 1700 sine the eenary’s beginning although txports were only about 10 per eent of the gross national predict Srnll shops and tradesmen proliferated in the 800 market ‘wns tnd in London. Foreign trade wes becoming increasingly important, though even by the Inte eighteenth century, on the eve of the Sindastal revolution’, the domestic market would sill be more important than extemal trade, Tradein wool and textiles hed been soing on since the fifteenth century and even before, but in our period a new phase of commerce began as trade Bloscmed with, the colonies of North America and the West Indies, as well s the Est Indies. Sugar, tobaceo and calicoes Were imported from the Americas and the East Ineies, largely for re-export othe Continent. 'A source of considerable mercantile fortunes were the rOVal monopolies granted to intemational eading companies like the Company of Merchant Adventurers, orginsting in the Gfecnth century and the Russa and Eastland Company in the lat sixteenth Century. Their monopolistic grip on foreign trade was often threatened by “inteopers' independent merchants who struck ‘out on their evn yithout the bene of oye menopoies This BrOUP ‘f'interloping’ merchants ws, se shal ee to Play an important folein the Civil Wer, Join stock companies lourshed, such a the Fast India Company, founded in 1601 and continuing until the nineteenth centry, and subsequently the Levant Company, the Royal Africs Company —a principal tothe lave trade ~ and the Hudson's Bay Company which survives in some form to this day. ‘The nucleus ofthis thriving commerce remained in dhe City of London, with its prowing numberof banks, astock exchange, and in 1694 the Bank of England. Thistle of economic success may seem inconsistent with the many grievances nd social upheavals, the rots and rebellions of| the sixteenth century and the revolutionary curmeil of the Seventeenth, not to mention the tan’ of socials and warnings ‘of social disaster enunciated bythe thinkers whose writings we shall ‘onsiderin the following chapters. While sore historians nist that the sixteenth century, especially the latter half, was marked by substantial economic grovth, others have argued cht there was 8 real decline in Hiving standards fora century after 1520. Mest ‘gree that thee war economic growth in the sevententh century, ‘while some historians emphasize the peice that was pad for such trosth, Iris probably fat to say that English Bing standards in {he seventeenth century andeven inthe second half the sxteenth, ‘were relatively high by European standards at least for sections of the population; but is equaly fair to say that this prosperity ws achieved at considerable cost to many people. "There fs no necessary inconsistency betveen economic growth and dectining living standards ora deteriorating quality of life for masses of people, Whatever the truth s about economic growth in the siteenth century, we know that many experienced the economic developments of that ime asa sharp detercration of conditions. “There war widespread dispossesson, poverty and distress, together ‘with a plague of vagraney and vagabondage that made the ruling ls fear for is safety andthe peace ofthe realm. ‘The emergence ofthe is compulsory system of poor rates no doubt testes both to the wealth that made it possible and to the powers ofa newly ‘centralized sate; butt also bespeaks a pressing social need ~ anced ‘hatasahrays been inseparable rom capt, with its properless Jabouring cas, since the bepinning and long before the modern “welfare state "The unigue pattern of economic development in England ws inseparsbly accompanied by the dislocations associated with fnclosurey the extinction of customary rights, the growing ‘concentration of property ahd inereasing propertylessness. The teevances occasioned by these developments had not been resolved In the seventeenth century, forall ts economic successes; and these rivances were undoubtedly aggravate bythe more and more stringent conditions of economic survival in an increasingly ‘competitive economy. ‘There may not heve been more absolute ‘misery in England then elsewhere in Europe indeed there may have bben es than in most her places; bu there were mere dramatically palpable dislocations, hich belp to account for socal disorders, forintensfed pola sugges by the disenfranchised muluitude and, we shall see, for the emergence of distinctive modes of Social thought A Contury of Political Experimentation ‘This complicsted story of economic development and soci lslocation goes some way to expsn the unprecedented paliteal ‘experimentation and Use explsion of radically new political eas {nthe English Revolution ofthe seventeenth century.» When James Twas crowned in 1603, England was no longer a feudal kingdom charscterized by personal rule and legal and administrative periclarm Iewas now 8 strong centalized and unified instiutional {tulity. Capitalism was making substantial headway in the agrarian ‘sector, with a Wealthy, increasingly homogeneous and tightly kat Tanded aristocracy, in grosring numbers driving the wealth from ‘capitalist rents. This class controlled Parliament on which the Growin incretsingly depended for revenues beyond what w25 required for normal and moderate royal expenditures. A bation ‘Of properted power and wealth vas the much more numerous class ‘of tenants and freebold farmer, living on their profits and paying rents to their aristocratic proprietors and composing the bulk of the electorate ‘London, withits vast and growing population, ws becoming the emporium of national and intemational trade. Among is leading Stizens were the extremely wealthy cverseas merchants, members fhe monopalstie ding commpnics ike the Merchant Adventurers fand the newly founded East India Company and rising fst, ‘especially after the 1620s, was the group of nev colonial and “interloping” overseas traders. Below these notables were professionals, ministretors anda mass of tradesmen, shopkeepers land artisans. ‘The interplay among these varied social groups in London was to be a major factor in the coming Civil War. "Among the many issues that were to divide the contenders in the Civil War celigion was of course, paramour ~or, to putitmore precisely, there wos hardly 2 contested social or political issue that ‘dd not find expression in ccceststieal and theological controversy ‘Under Hizabeth the landed aristocracy and their cient farmers tended to favour Calvinism, if they were not always Calvinists themecives, Without doubting their religious sincerity, we might tees take note ofthe various ways in which the landed aistocracy’s ‘lass interests were ted up wth the Protestant Causes noche east important consideration was that many owed their properties (0 the isslution ofthe monasteries and the sale of churth lds; and fs partners in the ‘Crown in Peliament they had good reason to “Support the independence ofthe English sate rom foreign contol inthe form of the papacy or entanglements with Cathelic powers fn the Continent, not 10 mention the role of Pariament in the Supremacy over the state church, So these religious commitments tvere accompanied by support for royal assistance to Protestant ‘egies on the Continent and war agsinst Catholic powers. Allies fn religion and foreign policy were found inthe new merchants of the City and in its cizes of hurler sors. ‘The monarchy, by contrast, had a much more ambivalent atirude toward dhese ites of religion an foreign policy. Tt had, among ‘other things, ts own dynastic reasons for keeping its options open in relations with the great monarchies of Europe, Prance and Span, to sy nothing ofthe dangers of alliance witha republican Protestant power in the Netherlands. At any eat, the attempts of| ‘he Start kings to esablish semethingikea Continental absolutism, both before the Civil War and after the Restoration, would founder atthe point where issues of eligion and foreign pelicy intersected ‘vith constitutional contcoversies and domestic socal confit. "The ices leading to the Civil Wat are too complex to canvass fully here, and we can nly touch on certain highlights in this

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