Economics and the Tudor Era...

I know you watch it, but I won't make you admit it. :-)  Now, stop thinking about Jonathan Rhys Meyers and all the luxe glam swag in the palace. Think about the servants and the commoners. It was a difficult life. Most only lived to be 35. The commoners worked hard for very little. Meats and the best vegetables were sold to the wealthier classes. Court life was not what everyone experienced. No electricity. Cobbled shoes. Women had a high risk of dying in childbirth. Women were still viewed as "property" and their fathers decided their marriages. Ok, now you are wondering where I am going with this. Me, too. (wink, wink).  Human life is an economic resource:  You are valuable as more than just a person.

Value of human life...as an economic resource

Think of all the battles and attacks launched by Henry VIII. What happened to his royal coffers? Someone had to pay for those battles. Battles often left the coffers empty. In fact, several kings took the throne to empty treasuries from the wars of the previous monarch. All the executions and burnings of heretics - who paid for those? Tax money. His Majesty's Royal Navy was the pride of England. Given the geography of England, water defense was just smart. Money and other resources were allocated to the Navy. During the religious stuggles and threat of attacks from the French, Spain and the Emperor, securing the defenses was a smart choice. Of course, building defenses and raising armies required resources. They needed ships, ammunition, guns, cannons, swords, and, of course, valiant knights to protect the good people of England. The soldiers had to be fed, sheltered and clothed. All of these things are economic resources. When a soldier was killed, who took that person's place? It's not like someone made a quick run to Macy's to pick up a new platoon. The people were a precious resource. Just like today. Our military puts the safety of our soliders into consideration for that very reason. While losing men in battle was the norm in the Tudor era,  armies today try to save lives, not only because we place a higher value on a human life but also because of the pure financial aspect of it. The military puts a lot of money into training our soliders. War and economics, who would have thought? But wait. There's more. (I LIVE for opportunities to say that. I hope you read it in the infomercial host voice.)

Life expectancy, disease and economics. That's not something I would have put together either. Remember the Pilgrims and the Mayflower? (Aside from those drab garments. I mean, who wears rough wool year-round in the Southeastern U.S.? )  The colonies presented a considerable economic advantage for the countries sponsoring the expeditions. Not only did it mean more land for the nations of Europe (who were fighting over territories seemingly every other week in Europe. Remember the battles for Callis with Henry VIII?), but it meant more goods to trade and, for some, a place to send prisoners to work the land.  Most of us only think of the Pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock and then having a big dinner party with the Native Americans.  

However, this isn't true at all. It wasn't a happy technicolor event. The people on those ships were economic resources. They were on the boat to build a colony and work the land. Without labor, no goods or food could be produced. No buildings built. No money for England (or Spain). When the people died from disease, starvation or cold, resources were lost. At the risk of sounding horrible - more than a human life was lost. Employees are an economic resource. Livestock is an economic resource.  

Globalization in the Tudor Era...

When the 13 colonies in the New World decided to break from England, why did England fight? Wealth. Why are there multiple Macy's? It is an opportunity for Macy's as a whole to earn more money. Why just have a store in New York City when you can have thousands of stores all over the world and earn money from shoppers in other cities as well?  See? England globalized before globalization was cool. Those Tudors, always the trendsetters.

Economics, Cholera and slummy Victorian London...

Let's go to the Victorian Era, and we are pampered ladies at court. Queen Victoria was also a trendsetter - wedding gowns came to be, childbirth was made more acceptable. She rocked. Anyway,  we have a favorite cobbler to make our shoes. We love the way they fit and the styles he creates. This cobbler thinks of us when he makes our shoes. So, he gets sick and dies. We immediately faint at the thought of no more of those wonderful shoes and are caught by this dashing young lord. (It has nothing to do with too-tight corsets, dehydration or malnourishment.) We later find out that he died from cholera.

London was just a little on the slummy side in Victorian times. Raw sewage everywhere. That's why we live at court - and even then our toilets drained into cesspools. If/when these were cleaned, they went into the water source (Hello, Thames River). This water came out of the pumps. People would drink this water and cook with it. Whole communities of people were just dying from cholera. People thought it came from smells and just dirty people. The general thought was that if you died from cholera, it was because you didn't bathe or you were around those who didn't bathe.

We can't imagine that our cobbler was dirty and poor. He seemed so wonderful and clean when we met him. Well, John Snow thinks like us. Enter Snow and his technology (using the term technology loosely).  Snow was a doctor - he entered the medical field at the ripe old age of 14. That is not a typo. Snow goes into the slums and performs some tracking and draws some maps. Long story short- one outbreak lead to a ton of deaths within 24 hours, all isolated to one area. All of those residents are getting their water from the same place. The Broad Street Pump. Snow insisted the handle be taken off the pump. Once this is done no one else gets sick. Snow eventually tracks the outbreak to a sick child whose dirty diaper water is dumped into a cesspool. That cesspool drained into the Broad Street Pump.  So all these people died from drinking poo water. Lesson here? Wash your hands and hug your sanitation worker.

Ok. Ok. There are two more lessons - humans are valuable from an economic standpoint as labor and their thought processes. It wasn't just our favorite shoe maker that died. London lost a significant portion of the labor force both in the current generation and the next generation. Child deaths have a long term impact as well. Technology is also an important economic resource. 

Are things any different now? Of course women are now people in their own right and can vote in the U.S. Some of us are even educated and allowed to write blogs. :-)  The life expectancy is higher. We have electricity and nuclear energy. We have been in space. We are becoming more and more of a global community.  How has this changed how our resources are used? The world hasn't gotten any larger in terms of of available land, water, air, soil, etc, but we have more people that depend on it. The way we use our resources has changed through the higher value placed on human life by most cultures and the advances in technology. We can now do more with the limited resources we have. Think of it as an on-line two-for-one shoe sale with free-shipping. :-) Think of it as storing your Christian Louboutin heels in the dust bag. A significant amount of your available resources went into those shoes and you want to take care of them.  

If you want to read (or listen) to more on John Snow: http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/transcript/john-snows-ghost-map

Want to know more about daily life for the Tudors? This is a great site: http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/tudors/dailylife.htm