Henry VII: Economic Development (AQA A Level History: Component 1: Breadth study): Revision Note

Summary

• England's economy in 1485 was built overwhelmingly on wool and cloth

  • Cloth exports grew from around 50,000 cloths per year in the early 1480s to around 80,000 cloths by 1509

• The Merchant Adventurers dominated English cloth exports

  • Henry worked closely with them, securing their access to the Antwerp market through the Magnus Intercursus (1496)

• Henry passed a series of Navigation Acts in 1485 and 1489 requiring certain goods to be carried in English ships

  • This was a protectionist measure designed to keep the profits of trade within England rather than enriching foreign carriers

• In 1497, John Cabot sailed from Bristol under royal letters patent and reached North America, establishing England's first real claim to the continent

• By 1509, there were genuine signs of prosperity, but the economy remained dangerously dependent on a single commodity and a single market

Trade: Cloth, Wool & the Merchant Adventurers

• England's economy in the late 15th century was built overwhelmingly on wool and cloth

  • These were by far the most important exports

  • The health of the cloth trade was the single biggest determinant of England's economic prosperity

Wool vs cloth

• Raw wool exports had been England's great medieval staple but were declining by 1485

  • The trend was increasingly towards exporting finished cloth rather than raw wool

  • Finished cloth was far more profitable as it captured the value added by English weavers and dyers

• The Staple at Calais controlled the raw wool trade, a monopoly company of merchants who paid heavily for the privilege

  • Its importance was declining as finished cloth grew in importance

• Cloth exports were dominated by the Merchant Adventurers, a London-based company that controlled trade in finished cloth to the Low Countries, primarily through the port of Antwerp

The Merchant Adventurers

• The most important English trading company of the period

• They dominated English cloth exports to the continent and were central to England's commercial prosperity

• Henry worked closely with them, granting trading privileges in exchange for financial support and political loyalty

  • It was a mutually beneficial relationship

• Their success depended entirely on access to the Antwerp market

  • This is why Henry's relations with Burgundy were so commercially vital

  • And why the trade embargo of 1493 was so economically painful for both sides

• The Magnus Intercursus (1496) was essentially a charter for Merchant Adventurer trade

  • It secured their access to the Netherlands market on highly favourable terms after the embargo was lifted

Navigation Acts & the Promotion of English Shipping

• Much of England's trade was carried in foreign ships, particularly Italian and Hanseatic vessels

  • This meant the profits from carrying English goods flowed abroad rather than enriching English merchants and shipowners

  • Henry's Navigation Acts were designed to address this

The Navigation Acts

• Henry passed a series of Navigation Acts requiring that certain goods be carried in English ships rather than foreign ones

  • This was a protectionist measure designed to keep the profits of carrying trade within England

• The most significant was the Act of 1485, requiring that Gascon wines and Toulouse woad be imported in English ships

  • This directly targeted the lucrative wine trade previously dominated by foreign carriers

• Further acts followed, including in 1489, extending the principle to other goods and requiring that English ships be crewed predominantly by English sailors

The Hanseatic League

• The Hanseatic League, the powerful German merchant confederation, dominated certain areas of English trade, particularly in the Baltic

  • It fiercely resisted Henry's attempts to restrict their privileges

• Hanseatic merchants had long enjoyed preferential trading rights in England through the Steelyard in London

  • Henry attempted to limit these but faced significant resistance

• The League's power meant that English merchants struggled to break into Baltic trade

  • A significant structural weakness in England's commercial position that Henry was unable to fully resolve

Limitations of the Navigation Acts

• The Navigation Acts were difficult to enforce and frequently evaded

  • Foreign merchants found ways to circumvent them

  • English customs officials lacked the resources to police every port effectively

• The immediate economic impact was limited, but the Acts established an important precedent for later, more effective navigation legislation

• Foreign carriers continued to dominate significant portions of England's carrying trade throughout the reign

The Magnus Intercursus & Malus Intercursus

• These two trade treaties with the Habsburg Netherlands were the most important commercial agreements of Henry's reign

  • Note: They are covered in the Foreign Policy revision note for their diplomatic significance, here the focus is on their economic impact on English trade and royal revenue

• Together these treaties illustrate Henry's commercial pragmatism, he was willing to use embargoes, diplomatic pressure and even the accidental arrival of a foreign ruler on English shores to extract maximum commercial advantage for English merchants.

Exploration Under Henry VII: John Cabot & Voyages of Discovery

• Henry VII's support for exploration was modest compared to Spain and Portugal

  • But it represented England's first tentative steps into the age of oceanic discovery

• Henry was aware of Columbus's 1492 voyage to the Americas and recognised the potential commercial benefits

  • Though his investment reflected his characteristically cautious, fiscally conservative approach

John Cabot

• A Venetian mariner (real name Giovanni Caboto) based in Bristol

  • He approached Henry with a proposal to find a westward route to Asia, similar to Columbus's project

• In 1496, Henry granted Cabot letters patent, royal permission to sail under the English flag, discover new lands and claim them for the English Crown

• In May 1497, Cabot sailed from Bristol and most likely reached Newfoundland, though the exact landfall is uncertain

  • He became one of the earliest Europeans since the Vikings to reach the North American mainland, probably Newfoundland

• Henry rewarded him with £10 and a pension of £20 per year

  • This was extraordinarily modest given the significance of the achievement

  • This suggests that Henry’s interest in exploration remained cautious and limited

• A second voyage in 1498 was less successful. Cabot's fleet was dispersed by storms and he is believed to have died at sea

Significance

• Cabot's voyages established England's claim to North America

  • This claim would be built upon by later Tudor and Stuart colonists, making this one of the most consequential achievements of Henry's reign, even if its importance was not recognised at the time

• The voyages demonstrate Henry's awareness of the commercial potential of exploration, even if his investment was minimal

  • He was interested in exploration as a trading opportunity, not as an imperial project

• The contrast with Spain's enormous investment in the Americas illustrates the limits of Henry's commercial vision

  • He was too cautious and too focused on domestic financial security to take the risks that Atlantic exploration required

Prosperity & Depression: the State of the English Economy by 1509

• The overall state of the English economy by 1509 is the subject of significant historical debate

  • The picture is genuinely mixed, there were real signs of growth and development, but also persistent structural problems