How Elizabethan law once protected the poor from the high cost of living – and led to unrivalled economic prosperity
- Written by Simon Szreter, Professor of History and Public Policy, University of Cambridge
Elizabeth I in procession, circa 1600.Wikimedia CommonsIn the closing years of Elizabeth I’s reign, England saw the emergence of arguably the world’s first effective welfare state. Laws were established which successfully protected people from rises in food prices.
More than 400 years later, in the closing years of Elizabeth II’s...
