So far the measures adopted closely resembled those of 1527-8, but in 1586 the organisation had become more developed.
In April and May the Council issued letters to the justices of the maritime districts and to twenty-three other counties ordering them to see the markets supplied with corn and to prevent the abuses of corn-dealers[170]. Notwithstanding there were symptoms of discontent. The workmen in the west of England were suffering not only because the price of corn was high but because there was a lack of employment in the cloth trade. At Romsey certain rioters "pretend that the present dearthe of corn and want of work hathe mooved them to attempt that outrage." In Framloyde, Gloucestershire, there was "a mutinee by the common people, who rifled a bark laden with malt." The justices responsible for Romsey were told to have regard to "their Lordships' late letters for the serving of the markettes and to deale with the principall clothemen and traders theraboutes for the setting of the people on worke[171]." Letters of the same kind were also sent to Gloucestershire[172] and Somerset. In the latter we are told that the spinners, carders and workers of wool lack "their comon and necessarie foode, a matter not onlie full of pittie in respect of the people but of dangerous consequence to the state." Her Majesty, therefore, "tendring the one and careful of th' other" directs the justices to call the clothiers before them and "require and command such of them as have stockes and are of habillitie to employ the same as they have heretofore don so as by them the poore maie be set on worke[173]."
With regard to the scarcity of corn the Council also took further action. Burleigh carefully considered and amended a proclamation for dealing with the difficulty[174]. The three judges, Popham, Mildmay and Manwood, to whom the matter was referred for consideration, made a series of recommendations[175]." These were embodied in a set of orders, the draft of which is amended in Burleigh's own hand[176]. After being signed by the Council[177] these orders were issued early in 1587 to the justices throughout the country[178]. They probably formed the nucleus of the Scarcity Book of Orders of the earlier Stuarts which in turn was the forerunner of the Orders and Directions of January 1630/1.
These directions of 1587 commanded the appointment of juries who were to make an elaborate survey of the amount of corn possessed by everyone, and to state the number of people belonging to the different households. The justices were then to allow each owner to retain as much corn as was necessary for the food of his househood and for seed, but were to order the rest to be brought to market. They were moreover to use "all good meanes and perswasions ... that the pore may be served of corne at convyent and charitable prices." They were also to see to the execution of the laws for the relief of the poor, "that the maymed or hurt soldiers and all other impotent persons be carefullye seene unto to be relieved," and "that the justices doe their best to have convenient stocke to be provided in everye division or other place accordinge to the statut for settinge the pore a worke[179]."
Many reports from the justices were sent to the Council in answer both to their letters and to the more elaborate set of orders of 1587. The justices divided themselves so that some were responsible for each division of the county[180]. They were present on market-days and saw if there were a sufficient supply of corn, and tried to persuade the owners to sell it at a moderate price[181]. They also took measures to check the dealers in corn or badgers. A difference of opinion seems to have existed as to the usefulness of these dealers. The Privy Council thought them mischievous, but the justices of Gloucester find them "honestlie demeaning themselves to be profytable members of this our Commonwelth[182]." The justices often, as in Norfolk[183], made detailed enquiries as to the amount of corn held by each farmer and the number of his household, and in accordance with the information thus acquired they ordered, as in Wootton, Oxfordshire, every corn holder to bring a proportionate quantity of his grain to market[184]. In Gloucestershire they went farther and also fixed the price at which it was to be sold[185].
The Privy Council certainly trusted much to the justices, and both farmers and markets were thoroughly regulated. One cannot wonder that sometimes the corn owners were disobedient[186], though on the whole the orders seem to have been loyally carried out. Even in our own time the poor of Italy and Spain have suffered much from an attempted "corner" in grain in spite of our rapid means of communication and worldwide source of supply. The circumstances of 1587 must have made organisation necessary, for the orders were successful, and when reissued in 1594 it was especially noted that in 1587 they had done "much good for the stay of ye dearthe and for ye relieving of ye poore[187]."
Already in 1586 additional measures were occasionally taken for the relief of the labourers and handicraftsmen. In Norfolk, "the poorer sorte are by persuasion sarved at meaner pryces[188]"; while in the county of Nottingham a philanthropic Duke of Rutland adopted the following expedient, afterwards employed by public authority. When it was known that there was likely to be a scarcity of grain, the Duke caused his corn to be sold in small quantities to the poor two shillings and eight pence under the market price. The justices tell us that by these means "the greedines of a number was frustrated, the poore releved, and the expectancy of excessive dearthe stayed[189]."
But, although the orders issued in 1587 especially command the provision as well of adequate support for the impotent as of work for the able-bodied, very few of the replies report any special action with reference to these matters. There are however one or two exceptions. Thus Arthur Hopton, a justice responsible for the hundred of Blithing, states that 500 poor in adjacent towns were relieved with "bred and other victuall," and that this should be continued for twenty-three weeks[190]. Certain justices of Hemlingford also give an especial charge to the collectors to see that all "the poore aged and impotent persons wtin everie township and hamlet be sufficientlie releeved as they ought to be," and to "adde a weekelie supplie to the same former reliefe," if the relief they had previously ordered were "too slender for them by reason of the dearth." The justices also especially charge the overseers[191] to see "that all the poore and idle persons in everie towneship and hamlet wch are able to labour and want worke be daylie set on worke ... towards the getting of their living according also to the former orders made to that effect[192]." But generally the action taken by the justices both in 1586 and 1587 mainly concerns the supply of corn. Still the whole organisation was made chiefly in the interests of the poor, and both the reports and the orders themselves notice this fact[193].