Polarization And Transformation

As we all know, The Sixteenth Century is a remarkable period for England or the whole Capitalism world. The reforms, involved in political, economic, military, religious, cultural fields, were going on. Especially in the social economy, the enclosure and the inflation had strong impacts on the old economic system and accelerated the polarization of peasant family economy. The commercialization promoted the peasant family economy to adjust .This thesis will discuss the polarization and transformation of peasant family economy and depict the structure of incomes and expenses and summarize the characters. The whole paper is divided into three chapters:The first one mainly explains the pertinent definitions, such as "peasant", "family economy" and so on. "Peasant" seems simple, but in fact it is confused. Owing to the differences of historical conditions, the understandings of "peasant" are various. In the sixteenth century, English peasantry was complex, so it is necessary to make it clear now. The followed are introduction of the family scale in this period and the summary of family economy study in the West.The second one will discuss the polarization and transformation. Holding land played a great important role in the peasants' family economy. But during this period, the number of peasants increased and the enclosure made the land concentrative, thus some large lands formed and many peasants' lands gradually decreased and they were uneven. It was one of primary factors which caused the polarization. The "price revolution" happened during this period accelerated the polarization. However the commercialization in the countryside provided more means for the peasants to augment their family income. Along with the level of productivity improving, many peasants' families had more surpluses. At the same time, plenty of markets were established which offered a wide trade stage for the peasants, many of them benefited from it. Various countryside industries developed and large farms sprang up. Many peasants who had less or no land could find more employments to make a living or improve your lives.The third one will generally depict the peasant family economy life and sum up the characters of peasant family economy. The peasant family economy life will be discussed from the structure of income and expenses. The income was not only from the agriculture, it also included wages, family by-work and the acquisition from common land. The expenses consist of three kinds: the productive expense, the living expense and the taxation expense. The characters of peasant family economy were continued, twofold, regional, multiple incomes and polarized.At last, I believe the peasants were not very poor but generally self-sufficient in the sixteenth century. At least they could make a living; even some of them were well off.