The Economic Causes Of The English Civil War

This is a coordinated presentation of the economic basis of revolutionary change in 16th- and early-17th century England, addressing a crucial but neglected phase of historical development. It traces a transformation in the agrarian economy and substantiates the decisive scale on which this took place, showing how the new forms of occupation and practice on the land related to seminal changes in the general dynamics of commercial activity. An integrated, self-regulating national market generated new imperatives, particularly a demand for a right of freedom of trade from arbitrary exactions and restraints. This took political force through the special status that rights of consent had acquired in England, based on the rise of sovereign representative law following the Break with Rome. These associations were reflected in a distinctive merchant-gentry alliance, seeking to establish freedom of trade and representative control of public finance, through parliament. This produced a persistent challenge to royal prerogatives such as impositions from 1610 onwards. Parliamentary provision, especially legislation, came to be seen as essential to good government. These ambitions led to the first revolutionary measures of the Long Parliament in early 1641, establishing automatic parliaments and the normative force of freedom of trade.

When the English Civil War broke out, London’s economy was diverse and dynamic, closely connected through commercial networks with the rest of England and with Europe, Asia and North America. As such it was uniquely vulnerable to hostile acts by supporters of the king, both those at large in the country and those within the capital. Yet despite numerous difficulties, the capital remained the economic powerhouse of the nation and was arguably the single most important element in Parliament’s eventual victory. For London’s wealth enabled Parliament to take up arms in 1642 and sustained it through the difficult first year and a half of the war, without which Parliament’s ultimate victory would not have been possible. In this book the various sectors of London’s economy are examined and compared, as the war progressed. It also looks closely at the impact of war on the major pillars of the London economy, namely London’s role in external and internal trade, and manufacturing in London. The impact of the increasing burden of taxation on the capital is another key area that is studied and which yields surprising conclusions. The Civil War caused a major economic crisis in the capital, not only because of the interrelationship between its economy and that of the rest of England, but also because of its function as the hub of the social and economic networks of the kingdom and of the rest of the world. The crisis was managed, however, and one of the strengths of this study is its revelation of the means by which the city’s government sought to understand and ameliorate the unique economic circumstances which afflicted it.

Basing his study on extensive new research Professor Russell provides the fullest account yet available of the origins of one of the most significant events in British history.

First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The causes of the English civil war have provoked fierce controversy amongst historians ever since the seventeenth century. The period is still one which matters to people, one over which they take sides. Such an enormous amount of work is published on the civil war that it is impossible for non-specialists to keep up with debates, hence the value of this synthesis. This book is intended as a guide and introduction to this massive outpouring of scholarship, including discussion of revisionist and post-revisionist work. It is a vigorous overview which seeks to focus sharply on original recent approaches. It examines English developments in a broader British and European context, and explores current debates on the nature of the political process and the divisions over religion and politics. Finally, it analyses controversial attempts to set the civil war in a social context, and to connect social change to broad cultural cleavages in England.