HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THE LARGE N
England in the eighteenth century saw a significant increase in criminal activity specifically in the growing towns where urbanisation was taking place. England prospered and her cities and ports flourished as worldwide trade and manufacturing expanded. The population soared as harvests improved and people migrated into the cities and towns searching for better lives. Cities became the centre for politics and culture. People were forced to live in close proximity to each other in a rather confined space. All this had huge implications for crime."In the generation after the Glorious Revolution few contemporaries doubted that crime and disorder were not only increasing but rampant. In particular they saw towns and cities as sinks of vice, stores of disrespect, and dens of thieving. For the most part they were just as certain that dramatic and at times drastic initiatives were necessary to stem this tide". This took the form of numerous laws and acts.The growing population stretched resources and work became a shortage. The peace disbanded many soldiers who returned home, facing unemployment. Food prices rose but wages fell. Poverty and hardship pushed many towards crime in order to survive; they were victims of e
As Martin Madan says the judiciary system was there "to expound the law of the propertied". Numerous anti-smuggling acts were passed and specific felonies in this category were made capital offences in order to protect the interests of the upper class. The government were receiving most of their revenue from direct income tax on goods such as tobacco, tea and brandy imported from abroad. As Beattie says "offenses like smuggling, poaching, coining, and riot, the kinds of offenses that are sometimes called 'social crimes' because, unlike murder, rape, and most ordinary theft, they were not universally regarded as 'criminal' were often carried out with the active approval of the local community". Without a state controlled police force or a standing army the only defence the government could call upon was the institution of law. Only one of the 97 hanged in 1785 was a murderer. Capital offences were constantly being created for theft from specified places such as warehouses, ships and manufactories. It was recognised at the time that poaching was partly due to poverty. It has been argued that execution methods were employed to enforce an unequal division of property and maintain the status quo. This was necessary for those in power to disguise the class interest of the law to appear as though their priority was in protecting the state from disorder and that they truly felt a paternalistic responsibility for the people. The privilege of hunting was about enforcing the authority of the upper classes. For example in 1764, the death penalty was applied to the theft of linen, which was specific to the interests of the English Linen Company. "The vast majority of people tried at the Old Bailey in this period could be sentenced to death (one could be hanged for stealing only a handkerchief or a sheep), judicial procedures prevented a blood bath by providing ways that sentences could be mitigated for less serious offences".
Common topics in this essay:
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Enclosure Movement,
Glorious Revolution,
London Pick,
Martin Madan,
,
Corresponding Society,
Meetings Acts,
King's Highway,
capital offences,
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upper classes,
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trade commerce,
forms theft,
trade commerce manufacture,
ruling class,
food prices,
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types property possessions,
capital offences legal,
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Acceptance Essays
