16th Century English Economics
Like Plato, almost 2000 years before him, Thomas More was not satisfied with the political and economic structure of the society that he lived in. More found that his society, 16th century England, was a corrupt society that favored the few and oppressed the many. More, like Plato who wrote the Republic, also wrote a political commentary about his time entitled "Utopia". In Utopia, More explains the relative idiocy of killing a thief for stealing when because of the economic situation of the time many peasants were driven from their homes by the rich landowners. Contributing factors to this consist of the "Black Death" of almost 150 years before and a change in agriculture leading to a rise in poverty as More illustrates in Utopia. The "Black Death" was a horrible plague that wiped out about two thirds of the population of Europe between the years of 1347-1350. The consequences that followed and the turmoil that affected most of Europe was not fully recovered from until about the sixteenth century. The "Black Death" swept through Europe killing millions of people. It wiped out towns, depopulated cities and left Europe in turmoil. The crops that were in the land died because no one was able to tend the fields and starva
One good thing that did occur was a rise in the wages of the working class people, namely the peasants. Food, which was more expensive before the "Black Death", decreased in price because less food was required to feed the population. When they were forced to leave their homes the peasants got very little for their land. Birnie Arthur, An Economic History of the British Isles (London: Methuen & Co. If they were caught for stealing they would be detained and then killed. Thomas More believed that theft , and especially the punishment of thieves, was a problem in 16th century England. They needed to figure out a way to make more profit on less merchandise and reduce the number of workers in the fields to reduce their costs. Unlike fields of grain, sheep need few people to attend them as long as there is a fence around them. Labor was difficult to find and what labor that could be found was more expensive. What began to happen in England at the time is that landowners would evict the peasants from their fields and turn their land and houses into fields in which he could tend his sheep. This had the result of many of the peasants being forced into the streets of the cities as they could survive on what little they had for only so long. He makes many suggestions to the reader about how the problem could be solved and how society would have to be restructured in order to effect those changes, the least of which is the abolition of classes and private property. Thomas More suggested that perhaps killing a thief is not the answer, maybe giving them jobs and feeding them would be more just.
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