Dearth and social policy in early modern England.

Abstract

SUMMARY. Between 1527 and 1630 the English government invented and implemented an ambitious policy for the provisioning of markets in years of dearth and bad harvest. The policy involved detailed local surveys of corn by jurors and justices of the peace, and arrangements for the weekly supply of the open market. The paper discusses the origins of the policy, the extent of its enforcement, its effects and the reasons for its abandonment after 1630. Political ambitions and capabilities were as important in shaping the government's strategy as economic and market circumstances, and political factors played a part, along with assertions that the policy was counter-productive, in the progressive disenchantment which led to the government's gradual withdrawal from this area of social regulation in the later seventeenth century. It is argued that, in practice, the policy of searches and market-provision did more to remedy deficiencies in the social distribution of scarce grain than deficiencies in its geographical distribution, but that the alternative—free internal trade—would itself probably have done little to ease shortages in the worst-hit areas. Both problems were solved in the later seventeenth century by other means: cash payments through poor-relief to poorer consumers, and changing terms of trade between arable and pastoral areas. By then, however, the dearth strategy had had other positive effects, changing perceptions of famine, poverty, and the 'entitlements' of the poor, and encouraging that careful collection and analysis of social and economic data which remained a central feature of English social policy more generally.