Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, you're listening to The History of Philosophy Podcast, brought to you with the support of the philosophy department at Kings College London and the LMU in Munich, online at historyofphilosophy.net.

Today's episode, Brave New World, Shakespeare's Tempest and Colonialism.

The infamous gunpowder plot to blow up Parliament would not come until 1605, a few years after the death of Queen Elizabeth, but other things were already exploding during her reign, not least the population.

The rising number of people drove down wages and drove up prices. As usual, the wealthy ruling class were the least affected by the situation, but it did not escape their notice entirely.

Indeed, economic problems throughout the 16th century helped to inspire the wave of writings on the improvement of the commonwealth that we've discussed in previous episodes, and those were, of course, written by members of the elite.

At the top of the hierarchy, economic expansion was one of the central and preoccupations of Elizabeth and her council of advisers. They wanted trade to explode too.

The cloth industry was the powerhouse of the 16th century economy. It was in order to facilitate the production of wool that landowners engaged in the controversial practice of enclosure, where public lands were given over to private use, often for the grazing of animals.

That practice is mentioned critically in some of the texts we've already discussed. Thomas Moore, complained about enclosure in Utopia and Thomas Smith, warned against its excessive use in his discourse on the commonwill.

With land and resources at home, seeming increasingly scarce, an alternative solution suggested itself, why not seek land and resources abroad?

It was a natural thought, since the 16th century was a time of increasing links between England and other European nations.

The reformation itself was one driver of that process, for instance when Protestants fled to Britain from repression in France.

This offered some economic benefits, since not a few of those Protestants were skilled crafts persons.

Trade links were also established with Spain, Italy, and as far as Russia and the Balkans. Who could object to such developments?

The humanists, that's who? In that widely read treatise on education, the schoolmaster Roger Asham, complained about the bad effects that Italian culture was having on English visitors.

He compared it to the island of Cersei, which seduces Ulysses and his sailors in the Odyssey.

A 1606 work by Thomas Palmer, entitled, essay of the means how to make our travels more profitable, used the techniques of Peter Ramus to offer advice for the Voyager.

He agreed with Asham when it came to Italy, a land of unfavorable climate and poor manners.

Admittedly, the political ideas being tried out in Italian cities were worthy of interest, but you could read about these in books, so there was no need to go visit in person.

There was a steady stream of invective aimed at Spain, too, which is unsurprising given the political religious and military rival between the English and Spanish at this time.

Another trial writer, or perhaps better, an anti-travel writer named Louis Lucanore, wrote to discourage his countrymen from visiting Spain, painting it as a land of oppression.

The shortcomings of mainland Europe gave the English all the more reason to turn in the other direction.

We already know from our discussion of Edmund Spencer that the late 16th century saw attempts to subdue and colonize Ireland.

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