[Sidenote: 1. Importance of municipal government in Tudor times.]
It is difficult now to realise the independent position of the town governors of Tudor times, and the authority possessed by them of regulating their own affairs. They imposed taxes without the authority of Parliament; uncontrolled, they could expel new comers from their borders; and they were fertile in the device of new punishments to drive the sturdy vagabond to honest labour. Each town was a law unto itself. Some municipal rulers made few experiments in this direction; others built hospitals for the old, and training homes for the young; invented punishments for the vagrants, and collected funds for the relief and discipline of all who were unable to support themselves. Many of the more successful orders, enforced in particular towns, were afterwards embodied by Parliament in statutes applying to the whole country. In the period from 1514 to 1569, the municipal regulations concerning these matters suggest the provisions of the statutes, more often than the provisions of the statutes suggest the regulations of the towns. Between 1514 and 1569 we will therefore examine, first, the action taken by the municipal authorities to improve and regulate the condition of sturdy vagabonds, unemployed workmen, poor householders, impotent beggars and neglected children: we will then consider the efforts made by the Privy Council for the same ends and the laws passed by Parliament with regard to the relief of the poor.
As London was, in these matters, more vigorous than other towns, we will examine first in detail the orders adopted there, and we will then see how far these regulations were typical of those enforced in other places.
[Sidenote: London. 2. Regulations for a constant supply of corn in London, 1391-1569.]
Some of the earliest of the London regulations for the help of the poorer classes concern the supply of corn. Even as early as the reign of Richard II., efforts had been made by particular Lord Mayors to bring corn to the City in years of famine. Adam Bamme, Lord Mayor in 1391, "in a great dearth procured corn from parts beyond the seas to be brought hither in such abundance as sufficed to serve the city and the counties near adjoining; to the furtherance of which good work he took out of the orphans' chest in the Guildhall two thousand marks to buy the said corn, and each alderman laid out twenty pounds to the like purpose[44]." But as London became more populous, the need of a constant supply of grain became much more urgent. In September 1520, therefore, an attempt was made to obtain the necessary funds in a more regular manner.