Professor Ashley's second volume is of especial value for this period. Green, Mrs. J. R.: _Town Life in England in the Fifteenth Century_, two volumes. Cheyney, E. P.: _Social Changes in England in the Sixteenth Century, Part I, Rural Changes_. A discussion of the legal character of villain tenure in the sixteenth century will be found in articles by Mr. I. S. Leadam, in _The English Historical Review_, for October, 1893, and in the _Transactions of the English Royal Historical Society_ for 1892, 1893, and 1894; and by Professor Ashley in the _English Historical Review_ for April, 1893, and _Annals of the American Academy of Political Science_ for January, 1891. (Reprinted in _English Economic History_, Vol. II, Chap. 4.) Bourne, H. R. F.: _English Merchants_. Froude, J. A.: _History of England_. Many scattered passages of great interest refer to the economic and social changes of this period, but they are frequently exaggerated, and in some cases incorrect. Almost the same remark applies to Professor Rogers' _Six Centuries of Work and Wages_ and _Industrial and Commercial History of England_. Busch, Wilhelm: _A History of England under the Tudors_. For the economic policy of Henry VII. CHAPTER VII THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND Economic Changes Of The Seventeenth And Early Eighteenth Centuries *49. National Affairs from 1603 to 1760.*--The last three rulers of the Tudor family had died childless. James, king of Scotland, their cousin, therefore inherited the throne and became the first English king of the Stuart family. James reigned from 1603 to 1625. Many of the political and religious problems which had been created by the policy of the Tudor sovereigns had now to come up for solution. Parliament had long been restive under the almost autocratic government of Queen Elizabeth, but the danger of foreign invasion and internal rebellion, long-established habit, Elizabeth's personal popularity, her age, her sex, and her occasional yielding, all combined to prevent any very outspoken opposition. Under King James all these things were changed. Yet he had even higher ideas of his personal rights, powers, and duties as king than any of his predecessors. Therefore during the whole of the reign dispute and ill feeling existed between the king, his ministers, and many of the judges and other officials, on the one hand, and the majority of the House of Commons and among the middle and upper classes of the country, on the other. James would willingly have avoided calling Parliament altogether and would have carried on the government according to his own judgment and that of the ministers he selected, but it was absolutely necessary to assemble it for the passing of certain laws, and above all for the authorization of taxes to obtain the means to carry on the government. The fall in the value of gold and silver and the consequent rise of prices, and other economic changes, had reduced the income of the government just at a time when