Richard Hakluyt's Role In Solving The Foreclosure Crisis

In sixteenth century England, thousands of farmers were now homeless because of the Enclosure Movement. In England farmers worked at communal farms, and switched plots every year so nobody got the “best” land. The landlords who owned the land were looking for more money so they turned to grazing sheep on their land. This meant that the people who had spent generations working on shared farmland, were jobless, and homeless. Now they were leaving for cities in search of jobs, but due to the competitiveness many were forced to become beggars. Two men: Richard Hakluyt, a writer and Reverend Harrison, a local priest both had ideas to change the poor’s and all of England's life. Richard Hakluyt believed that these unwanted men and women, displaced by landlords, wars and other causes could help the british government through colonization of the New World. Currently, Spain held most of the land in the America’s but Hakluyt’s idea of sending the poor over to farm, build and colonize. He said that they could return home twice a year to visit family, and once they start making money they could send money to the English government. The fatal flaw in his plan was money. Hakluyt was all about making the english money but voyages were not cheap and while …show more content…
He proposed a collection made by each church, and given to the poor. Harrison sorted the poor into three groups: poor by weakness, being old, sick or disabled, poor by accident, being laid off or evicted, and poor by choice, being lazy and pretending to be hardworking. The last part of his plan stated that if the poor refused money they are criminals, lazy and enjoy being poor rather than trying to keep their pride in tact. He often talked in a demeaning tone, criticizing the life choices of many poor. Harrison did have a better plan for the poor, but his demeaning tone and punishment for not wanting help, made this plan seem like an