\paperw5085 \margr0\margl0\ATXph16380 \plain \fs20 \pard\tx3255\tx6525\tx9780\ATXts240\ATXbrdr0 \f1 \fs22 Between the early 1500s and the early 1600s, the cost of living in Engla
nd rose by around 350 percent. The rise in food prices outpaced that of wages or industrial prices, allowing shrewd landowners and merchants to make large profits which they spent lavishly on land, housing, furnishings or plate. Smallholders could also
hold their own if they were self-sufficient for food; and those who werenÆt often turned to secondary employments such as nail-making and stocking knitting. Cloth continued to be EnglandÆs largest export, but the economy also thrived thanks to leather
crafts and pottery. Moreover, the Weald of Kent and Sussex became major rural industrial areas for ironworking and glassmaking, whereas coal-mining developed rapidly in the north, in South \b \cf4 \ATXht10141000 Wales\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 and in \b \cf4 \ATXht10150000 Scotland\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 . The Crown also encouraged skilled continental immigrants to settle in England and put to good use their expertise in cannon and gunpowder manufacture as well as the production of sailcloth, drinking glasses and other
items that reduced dependence on imports. Export horizons were widening fast, with cloth exporters seeking markets in Russia and the Baltic, southern Europe and Turkey. In return they sought supplies of wine, Asian silks and spices, and \ATXnt901 Amer
ican tobacco and sugar\ATXnt0 . The African slave trade began in the 1560s, largely to serve the lucrative markets of Spanish America, and the East India Company was granted a royal charter in 1600 allowing it exclusive trade in and around the Indian Oc
