Sep 8, 2008

Shakespeare's World | Economic Life in Shakespeare's England

The People and the Land
The material and economic circumstances of Shakespeare's world had few features in common with those of the present age. Shakespeare lived in an England that was overwhelmingly rural and had virtually no mechanized industry. Nobody could travel on land faster than by horse, or on water faster than by sail. The average life expectancy at birth was about thirty-seven years, roughly half of what it is in Britain and the United States today.

Between Shakespeare's birth in 1564 and his death in 1616, the population of England and Wales rose from about 3...