Ponciano 1

Cesar Ponciano

Mr. Mitter

English 1

15 March 2016

Today jobs are acquired easily. Most people today can get an education and get a good paying

job, others can get common jobs and now women can get jobs and an education, but this was

different story back in the Sixteenth century. Jobs in the sixteenth century were much harder to

acquire and involved more labor, mostly due to the lack of education. In this paper were going to

talk about professions that required an education and that paid high for the time period,

agriculture was the common job everyone got in the sixteenth-century, the roles women had in

the economy of the sixteenth-century, and then compare them to similar jobs of the twentieth-

century.

During the sixteenth century in England, there were three professions that generated

wealth for this time period: the law, the Church, and medicine. All three have an extended

period of training and require considerable investments (Mortimer 38). These jobs were the best

jobs to have at this time period because they were the highest paying jobs around. Having a job

in the church was good because a bishop would have an income of 2, 682 euros. If you were a

lawyer you would do even better, with in income that ranged from 14,000 euros to 100 euros per

year. It is the Church and the law that offer the greatest opportunities to an ambitious man

(Mortimer 38). Medicine is the least rewarded of the three professions (Mortimer 39). This

was mostly because wealthy people didnt pay their medical practitioner and the poor couldnt

afford doctors.
 Ponciano 2

How do the sixteenth professions compare to modern day professions? Last year the highest

paying jobs in the United Kingdom were: brokers, chief executives and senior officials, and

marketing directors. Compared to modern day jobs, sixteenth-century professions are similar.

All three are subjects of university degrees and can generate a healthy income (Mortimer 38).

This is a similarity for both because to obtain these professions you need a degree and both

payed high for their time period. The differences are that sixteenth-century professions are not

the same professions that paid well in modern day England. Another difference is that in the

modern day people have a better chance to obtain high paying professions. But since everyone

couldnt obtain, professions, people would seek to find jobs in other places, like the rural areas of

England.

Merchants are not the only ones who look at a city as a place of opportunity (Mortimer

43). Since England was still overwhelmingly rural, many people sought to farm because it was

the best opportunity to make an income. The another reason why agriculture was because of

wool. Wool was Englands principle of wealth (Singman 29). There were 10-11 million

sheep in England in 1558 and since wool was Englands main product and export, it created

employment for people who wanted to make money by raising sheep. Another reason why

agriculture was popular was because farmers needed locally manufactured products, so that

opened employment for craftsmen like blacksmiths and carpenters to open shops near farm land

to sell their manufactured tools.

Sixteenth-century agriculture was very hard labored and low pay for that time period, but

has that changed or stayed the same? and very labor-intensive sine hardly any machinery

was involved (Singman 27). This a big change because farmers now have machinery that helps

them do their jobs much faster and now farmers dont have to hire many workers. Another
 Ponciano 3

change is that now farmers have genetically modified crops that grow faster than sixteenth-

century crops. Land productivity was improved by crop rotation, typically the three-field

system (Singman 27). This a similarity because modern day agriculture still uses crop rotation.

Another similarity is that agriculture was important for the production food in both sixteenth-

century and modern century. Finally, we're going to talk about what kind jobs women had in the

sixteenth-century and how women benefited the economy

The life for women living in the sixteenth century was no easy thing, women were given

strict freedom and have forcible roles in their homes. In the 16th century was not allowed in the

professions such as doctors, lawyers and teachers (Life for Women in The 16th Century).

Like it says women couldnt hold any professions because it was against the law and even if they

could women were not allowed to get an education. Some women had jobs like tailors, milliners,

dyers and shoemakers, but the most women were housewives. women played a crucial role in

the economic live of the country. (SingMan 30). This meant that women worked hard as men

and it also means that men couldnt handle the farm work by themselves. One of the primary

responsibilities of women were to tend the livestock. They were in charge of milking cows and

making cheese, as well as collecting eggs. Women also to care for the garden, this was a

common feature for both rural and urban households. Women also had home tasks like cooking,

brewing, and cleaning. In addition, women were also important to industries, especially in the

wool industry because women were in charge of spinning the wool thread.

Women were very important to the economy of the sixteenth-century because without

women farmers couldnt handle all the farm work and industrys would fail, but many people

didnt see that, so has womens rights in the economy changed? A lot has changed for women in

the economy the most common things that changed are that women can have an education and
 Ponciano 4

obtain any profession they want. and female employment was often menial and low paid.

(The Life for Women in The 16th Century). This is another change because today women get

paid equally as men and sometimes get paid even more than man. One thing that hasnt changed

is that women today are still working hard as they did back in the sixteenth century.

Jobs in the sixteenth-century were hard to obtain, but many people found employment in

agriculture. Others didnt want to do hard labor, so they got an education and got high paying

professions such as studying the law, the church, and medicine. Women, on the other hand, had

mostly household or factory jobs. Knowing the history of the types of jobs available to those in

the past allows those who are pursuing careers today to appreciate how much easier jobs are to

acquire and how much better they pay.

 Ponciano 5

Work Cited

Lambert, Tim, Life for Women in The 19th Century. A World History Encyclopedia: n.p., n.d.,

24 Feb.2016.

Mortimer, Ian. The Time Travelers Guide to Elizabethan England. New York: The Penguin

Group, 1967. Print.

SingMan, Jeffery. Daily Life in Elizabethan England. Connecticut: The Greenwood Press, 1995,

Print.