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Poverty In 16th Century England

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In 16th century England poverty consumed the cities due to the Enclosure Movement. People became desperate for land as thousands of acres of were fenced in to raise sheep which resulted in agricultural workers being kicked off of their land, and England becoming severely overpopulated and filled with poverty. William Harrison, a clergyman, and Richard Hakluyt, a writer, each had different ideas as to how they could solve the problem. Harrison believed that the church should offer charity to the poor who were deemed worthy, while Hakluyt believed that they should send the poor to the Americas to colonize, where there were jobs, fresh resources, and an opportunity to move in on Spain’s territory. Therefore, the only solution that could have …show more content…

Because of his connection to the church, Harrison believed that the solution to the problem of England’s poverty was to create charities inside of the churches that would help the worthy poor, those poor by weakness or accident, and deny help to the thriftless poor by punishing them, either by corporal punishment or incarceration. In order to make sure that the plan worked, it was decided that if the poor refused the help, they would be automatically considered as someone of the third group, and if the church refuses to help the worthy poor, they will be punished as well. Through this Harrison believed that help would be given to those who are worthy and will use the money and support given to them in order to become members of society once again. Althought his plan would offer support to the poor, and would keep families together in England, the solution is both temporary, and biased, assuming that there are only three different types of poverty, and that Harrison, a member of the upper class, would be able to fairly access that. In addition, this plan results in little advancement for England, as they would still have overpopulated cities, and is only temporary as the church would eventually run out of money, and if no new jobs were created the poor would once again be left in the streets to

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