Exploration, Trade and the Poor Law

Elizabeth's reign saw significant English expansion beyond Europe. Francis Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe (1577-80), returning with treasure worth £600,000 (roughly equivalent to half Elizabeth's annual government income). Elizabeth personally invested in his voyage and knighted him on his return. English explorers also attempted to establish colonies in North America — the ill-fated Roanoke colony (1585-86 and 1587) showed the ambition if not yet the achievement of English empire-building.

The East India Company was founded by royal charter in 1600, beginning England's commercial engagement with Asia. English merchants were also active in the Levant (Turkey) and Russia. This expanding trade was driven partly by privateering — semi-official piracy against Spanish shipping — which brought wealth to English investors including the queen herself.

The Poor Law of 1601 addressed the growing problem of poverty that had accompanied economic change. Enclosure of common land, harvest failures, and inflation had increased the number of vagrants and "sturdy beggars." The 1601 Act made each parish responsible for its own poor: it established overseers of the poor to collect a poor rate (a local tax) and provide for the elderly, sick, and genuinely unemployed. Parishes were also required to set the "able-bodied poor" to work. This was England's first systematic national approach to welfare — the foundation on which the Victorian poor law and ultimately the modern welfare state would be built.