The proof of the change which was taking place in the scope of upper-class women’s interests does not rest only upon individual examples such as those which have been quoted, though these instances have been selected for the most part on account of their representative character.

It is quite clear that the occupation of ladies with their husband’s affairs was accepted as a matter of course throughout the earlier part of the century, and it is only after the Restoration that a change of fashion in this respect becomes evident. Pepys, whose milieu was typical of the new social order, after a call upon Mr. Bland, commented with surprised pleasure on Mrs. Bland’s interest in her husband’s affairs. “Then to eat a dish of anchovies,” he says “and drink wine and syder and very merry, but above all things, pleased to hear Mrs. Bland talk like a merchant in her husband’s business very well, and it seems she do understand it and perform a great deal.”[[69]] The capacity of a woman to understand her husband’s business seldom aroused comment earlier in the century, and would have passed unnoticed even by many of Pepys’ contemporaries who lived in a different set. Further evidence of women’s business capacity is found in the fact that men generally expected their wives would prove equal to the administration of their estates after their death, and thus the wife was habitually appointed executrix often even the sole executrix of wills. This custom was certainly declining in the latter part of the century. The winding up of a complicated estate and still more the prosecution of an extensive business, could not have been successfully undertaken by persons who hitherto had led lives of idleness, unacquainted with the direction of affairs.

That men did not at this time regard marriage as necessarily involving the assumption of a serious economic burden, but on the contrary, often considered it to be a step which was likely to strengthen them in life’s battles, is also significant. This attitude was partly due to the provision of a dot by fathers of brides, but there were other ways in which the wife contributed to the support of her household. Thus in a wedding sermon woman is likened to a merchant’s ship, for “She bringeth her food from far” ... not meaning she is to be chosen for her dowry, “for the worst wives may have the best portions, ... a good wife tho’ she bring nothing in with her, yet, thro’ her Wisdom and Diligence great things come in by her; she brings in with her hands, for, She putteth her hands to the wheel.... If she be too high to stain her Hands with bodily Labour, yet she bringeth in with her Eye, for, She overseeth the Ways of her Household, ... and eateth not the Bread of Idleness.” She provides the necessities of life. “If she will have Bread, she must not always buy it, but she must sow it, and reap it and grind it, ... She must knead it, and make it into bread. Or if she will have Cloth, she must not always run to the Shop or to the score but she begins at the seed, she carrieth her seed to the Ground, she gathereth Flax, of her Flax she spinneth a Thread, of her Thread she weaveth Cloth, and so she comes by her coat.”[[70]]

The woman here described was the mistress of a large household, who found scope for her productive energy within the limits of domestic industry, but it has been shown that the married woman often went farther than this, and engaged in trade either as her husband’s assistant or even on her own account.

The effect of such work on the development of women’s characters was very great, for any sort of productive, that is to say, creative work, provides a discipline and stimulus to growth essentially different from any which can be acquired in a life devoted to spending money and the cultivation of ornamental qualities.

The effect on social relations was also marked, for their work implied an association of men and women through a wide range of human interests and a consequent development of society along organic rather than mechanical lines. The relation between husband and wife which obtained most usually among the upper classes in England at the opening of the seventeenth century, appears indeed to have been that of partnership; the chief responsibility for the care of children and the management and provisioning of her household resting on the wife’s shoulders, while in business matters she was her husband’s lieutenant. The wife was subject to her husband, her life was generally an arduous one, but she was by no means regarded as his servant. A comradeship existed between them which was stimulating and inspiring to both. The ladies of the Elizabethan period possessed courage, initiative, resourcefulness and wit in a high degree. Society expected them to play a great part in the national life and they rose to the occasion; perhaps it was partly the comradeship with their husbands in the struggle for existence which developed in them qualities which had otherwise atrophied.

Certainly the more circumscribed lives of the Restoration ladies show a marked contrast in this respect, for they appear but shadows of the vigorous personalities of their grandmothers. Prominent amongst the many influences which conspired together to produce so rapid a decline in the physique, efficiency and morale of upper-class women, must be reckoned the spread of the capitalistic organisation of industry, which by the rapid growth of wealth made possible the idleness of growing numbers of women. Simultaneously the gradual perfecting by men of their separate organisations for trade purposes rendered them independent of the services of their wives and families for the prosecution of their undertakings. Though the stern hand of economic necessity was thus withdrawn from the control of women’s development in the upper classes, it was still potent in determining their destiny amongst the “common people,” whose circumstances will be examined in detail in the following chapters.

Chapter III
AGRICULTURE

Agriculture England’s leading Industry—Has provided the most vigorous stock of English race—Division into three classes:—