The Growth and Special Role of London: 1500 to 1700

The growth and special role of London, fifteen hundred, to seventeen hundred.
Um, London, in those days, um, towered over any other British city, more than it does today.
Although of course, it's still pretty impressive.
Uh, we think of the Scottish poet Barbour [he means Dunbar], and Scotland had, um, n- no such great city to speak of.
Even Edinburgh was tiny, the capital, in those days.
Say, write a poem where he says, 'London, thou art the flour of Cities all. '
And there's something to be said for that.
Although things weren't always so fragrant, if you went to a London street in fifteen hundred.
You'd probably find it more smelly than fragrant.
But anyway, all through this period, there was great economic and population expansion.
London spills far beyond the boundaries of the city.
There's always a stream of poor immigrants from the country.
Um, I would say, that in fifteen hundred, London already had seventy thousand people.
Which wasn't_ uh, doesn't sound much by our standards, but it was huge by the standards of England.
Remember that England probably had at most, three hundred_ three and a half million people, in the whole of England.
Um, London, as it was the only major urban centre, also had, um, certain, inflexes ways of behaving, which, just didn't occur.
You could almost say just couldn't occur, um, in any other part of England or Wales or, Scotland come to that.
The poor for example, there were poor everywhere.
But there were tens and thousands of poor in London.
They formed a mob.
In a way which could hardly be replicated in Norwich, the next biggest city, which only had twenty thousand people, rich or poor.
And the poor where their bad conditions in London.
Helped make London notorious for popular unrest in the sixteenth century, and for for political radicalism in the, seventeenth.
The economy.
Industry moves to the suburbs in London, away from the city, of London, the city of Westminster, where it could be regulated by the guilds.
Um, cloth working, printing, later on, all sorts of things.
Um, labour was cheaper because, um, in the suburbs, uh, labour wasn't s- subject to the wage rates of the city of London.
So, uh, the economy then helps the ci_ London to grow_ to grow more suburbs.
Um, commerce and finance is an element of this.
In the sixteenth century, you get the joint stock companies, from fifteen fifty to explore, and finance trading to remote parts of the world.
You get the, East India Company, in some ways the culmination of sixteen hundred.
And, the seventeenth century is, the time, of immense expansion of, English overseas trade.
Far beyond, the usual cloth trade with northern Europe.
And, this lays the foundation of the wealth of England and indeed the later British Empire.
By the sixteen nineties, from sixteen ninety-four, you've got the Bank of England in the city of London.
Which has been there ever since.
Um, so London, from the sixteen seventies I would say, is a great national and finance and trade centre.
Even an international centre, by the end of the seventeenth century.
Um, and it has never ceased to be an international centre for finance and trade.
Um, the old magistrates of the city, in terms of government, were however losing control of this new expansion.
And there was little authority in the suburbs, of any sort.
They were nominally part of the county of Middlesex.
Um, in the Civil War period, um, to turn to politics.
Sixteen forty, sixteen sixty, the city was forced to loan money to Parliament.
And this might have been_ certainly was I think, a factor in the reason why Parliament won over the king.
The king left London in early sixteen forty-two, over which he had lost all control.
Because the mobs, were sided with Parliament.
And, uh, therefore he, could no longer tap into the resources, when the war came, uh, to fight, of the city of London.
The city merchants lent to Parliament.
Partly by ideological conviction, partly it was, by prudence.
They couldn't do anything else, Parliament was in control.
And the, city of London merchants were the greatest concentration of financial wealth, by far, anywhere in the kingdom.
Um, this extortion, however, by the government, continued post sixteen sixty, under the restored monarchy.
They'd learnt a few things. Radical politics.
Only London, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was big enough to foster radicalism.
Which was more than the sort of, spasmodic discontent to Saturday Night Riot which was put down.
Um, you have, first of all, London's internal politics.
I've said, that the great merchants and financiers were powerful.
But in the government of the city of London, they were often opposed by smaller merchants and tradesmen.
Then, perhaps more interesting, in general, national politics.
In sixteen forty, forty-two, you have the beginning of the Civil War.
The London crowds support Parliament and intimidate the king Charles I, to the extent that he leaves London.
Which was a great mistake. He's driven out.
Because then, you see, the king looks like a rebel. London is the capital.
He looks like a rebel trying to recapture_ trying to capture the capital.
And that's a weakness of his, all through the years of the Civil War.
And they keep him out as well.
In, um, sixteen forty-three, Charles comes closest to capturing London_ recapturing London in sixteen forty-three, but, the London Trained Bands, a sort of home guard, defeat his forces at Turnham Green in Middlesex, just outside London.
In sixteen seventy-eight, eighty-one, the Londoners support Shaftsbury, and Monmouth in the Popish Plot, a sort of anti-Catholic move, to have Monmouth, Charles IIs illegitimate son accepted as the next king, inst_ in place of Charles's Catholic brother, James Duke of York.
Physical expansion. This is continuous.
As b- indeed was continuous after nineteen forty [sixteen forty].
The East End, to the east of the city, contained a large poor, even destitate [destitute] popu- population.
Post sixteen sixty, the West End was developed.
Splendid mansions and squares.
So, you have a national social capital for the upper classes, partly replacing the Royal Court.
In the smaller London_ much smaller London, before sixteen forty, it was already a centre for the nation's elite.
But they had to gravitate around the court in Whitehall.
Now you get the West End.
In fact West End, East End contrast, by seventeen hundred, you've already got something like the ancestor of the, division and layout today.
Both the layout, and the division between rich and poor parts.
Although it's more complex today, of course. Religion.
This was always radical in London.
Pre-reformation, up to fifteen thirty, the London crowds were very anticlerical, uh, against the established Latin church.
You can see that, fifteen fifteen, a London merchant Han was, imprisoned, by the bishop of London, in his prisons there, for failing to pay some sort of Church tax, and he died in the prison cell.
And the Londoners, thought that the Bishop's agents had, had Han murdered, and there were, ferocious riots against the um, bishop's servants, and indeed, against the bishop himself.
In the reformation period, fifteen thirties, fifteen sixties, Protestantism spreads more quickly in London than elsewhere.
From the fifteen eighties to sixteen forties Puritanism grows, encouraged by wealthy merchants.
This links with anti-royalism in the Civil War.
In the late sixteen forties, with the monarchy in ruins, and the Parliamentarian side quarrelling among themselves, you then get extreme Puritanism, left-wing, populace Puritan sects.
Um, like the Ranters, or Quakers who were considered wild men then.
Um, it_ and interestingly enough, you get for the first time, a secular, lower-class political party, the Levellers.
Um, who, don't depend on religion so much, but they get great support in London. Education.
Um, London in this period, naturally had a very important role in education.
There were enough wealthy people there.
In the early sixteenth century, many grammar schools were founded.
Teaching the classics.
Latin_ revived Latin and Greek learning, which was, a big feature of the Renaissance.
Um, this Renaissance led by St. Paul's, School, um, which, uh, then followed by Westminster School.
Um, the Inns of Court, they'd been there since the middle ages, um, where you studied law.
They were called the third university of England.
Taught law to the gentry. Um, the amount of law the gentry learnt, was variable.
Some became professional barristers, others just had a jolly good time at the Inns of Court.
Um, but picked up enough law maybe to, apply it or misapply it when they became justices of the peace back at home, in their shires.
Um, if you read Henry V, sorry Henry IV, Shakespeare's Henry IV, which is set in the fourteen hundreds.
Notice that Falstaff, Falstaff um, young prince Hal's disreputable, ageing fat friend, makes London too hot for him who's bankrupt.
So goes to stay with a cousin of his, um, Justice Shallow.
A country gentleman in Gloucestershire, and idyllic surroundings.
Shallow has nice apple orchards, and he also is a bit of a cattle dealer, deals in bullocks.
But he_ whereas, Falstaff finds, um, Gloucestershire restful, Falstaff, the Londoner, and he gets jolly good food there.
Falstaff's very greedy.
Um, Shallow, is rather bored with this rustic idyll, and is very anxious to, talk about London, is glad to receive, uh, someone with cosmopolitan, manners, and just come from London.
And Shallow also reminisces ad nauseum about, what a lad he was.
What a hell of a lad he was, when he was a student at the il- ils- at the Inns of Court, forty years previously, and all the things he got up to.
And now, um, this is set in the fourteen hundreds.
But Shakespeare was probably thinking of the country gentry of his own day, from the fifteen sixties, fifteen nineties, to model Shallow on.
And indeed, more country gentry, were going to the Inns of Court, even though they were Medieval, in the sixteenth century, than had gone in Medieval times.
The gentry were getting better educated.
But in fact, even if you take Shallow at his period value_ face value of the early fourteen hundreds, nearly two hundred years, before Shakespeare is actually writing, there's no reason why, an early, fifteenth century squire, as opposed to a late sixteenth century one, shouldn't have gone to the Inns_ Inns of Court.
You also had Gresham's College. A seventeenth century foundation.
Not a school or a university.
But, gave lectures on the new scientific knowledge, to the public in general.
Well, after sixteen sixty, London's educational role declines, as Renaissance-fuelled education, rather loses its, um, uh, dynamism, and becomes somewhat formulaic.
And most grammar schools stagnate, except the rich and fashionable. E. G. St. Paul's and Westminster.
A lot of the rich send their children outside London, to school, by now.
To Eton, Harrow, and Winchester.
Because, they're considered healthier than, you know, to be in London you'll likely get the plague.
Also, rich adolescent young men were more likely to be drawn into, wicked ways and temptation in London.
Whereas, Eaton at that time, was, you know, very rural. Ha ha.
Right out in the sticks.
Hm...Well, above all, London becomes, in the seventeenth century, a centre for conspicuous consumption for the upper classes.
A role it's never lost, except you can expand it beyond the upper classes, to, I suppose anyone with money in general.
British or foreign now.
Look at Oxford Street on a busy day.
And by the early eighteenth century, London was very much the seat of the national oligarchy, both social and political_ and hell, well, rich people still do, spend part time in London.
You have to be very rich though, given the price of houses in West End_ part of the of time in the country.
Now, London's predominance, easy predominance over any other city in Britain, goes on, I think, past eighteen hundred.
That's one reason_ that's what Dr Johnson meant when he said, 'he who tires of London is tired of life. '
Because in his time, the eighteenth century, no other city approached London in terms of size, sophistication, complexity, diversity of interests, you could carry on there.
No other city in Britain, of course, not on the continent.
Um, after nineteen hundred, I don't say, London's predominance fell, but at least it could be challenged after_ sorry, after eighteen hundred, by the new industrial cities like Manchester, um, Glasgow, Birmingham.
Um, Manchester, indeed, at one point, at the height of its prosperity over cotton, tried to regard itself as, a different sort of place to London. Down-to-earth, dynamic, liberal, um, economically efficient, more realistic, etcetera.
And, formed it's own school of economists. So London could be challenged at least for do_ dominance within Britain, after eighteen hundred, in a way, which would be unthinkable, in our period.