Dispossession, poverty, and crime
After things had been going so swimmingly for so long, at least for the Nobs, the ruling class took the opportunity to do what the Scots call "the clearances". They realised they could make much more from their land out of sheep, which didn't need all their farm workers and tenant farmers.
So, naturally, out of human concern for the well-being of people who had worked for the nobs' families for countless generations, with children to raise, who needed somewhere to work themselves, they decided not to make the change. I'm afraid not! Unsurprisingly, they couldn't boot these poor people out fast enough.
And on top of all this, the population continued to grow. Those low class scum just couldn't stop rutting in the fields and popping out babies at a huge rate of knots, when us nobs do the proper thing and sleep apart except when we're breeding and when we feel improper urges we seek professional assistance or grab some serving wench to relieve them. At least, the men do. Who cares about the women? They're just weak vessels to create our heirs for us.
I hope that's you channeling some horrible upper class twit, Lex, and not expressing some secret hidden desire of your own?
No, dear. Of course not, dear. You know I wouldn't do that.
Yes, perhaps, but I'm not sure about your forebears up in their castle.
Oh, I'm sure they were the very height of morality.
Right, well, get on with it.
Okey dokey, here goes.
So, the now former farm workers and their families had nowhere to go except the unbelievably ghastly slums of the rapidly growing cities. A few found work for ridiculously low rates of pay and slavishly long working hours, but this was before the Industrial Revolution, when there was much more work, much less pay, and much worse conditions. And the rest, the great unwashed and unemployed, not that most of the nobs were much if any better washed, this was Britain after all, struggled from day to day just to survive.
And, of course, this appalling poverty forced people to resort to making a living however they could. Women, children of both sexes, and some men resorted to prostitution, catching and spreading terrible diseases and dying incredibly cruel deaths, leaving hordes of orphans to "survive" on the streets.
Others resorted to crime. Not bank robbing, or corporate fraud, but theft of anything that could be easily stolen and turned into cash that could be spent on rent, food, or the things that helped them escape for a little from their frightful lives, like booze, tobacco, and sex. Or, of course, they could steal food itself, like the fabled loaves of bread.
So, naturally, out of human concern for the well-being of people who had worked for the nobs' families for countless generations, with children to raise, who needed somewhere to work themselves, they decided not to make the change. I'm afraid not! Unsurprisingly, they couldn't boot these poor people out fast enough.
And on top of all this, the population continued to grow. Those low class scum just couldn't stop rutting in the fields and popping out babies at a huge rate of knots, when us nobs do the proper thing and sleep apart except when we're breeding and when we feel improper urges we seek professional assistance or grab some serving wench to relieve them. At least, the men do. Who cares about the women? They're just weak vessels to create our heirs for us.
I hope that's you channeling some horrible upper class twit, Lex, and not expressing some secret hidden desire of your own?
No, dear. Of course not, dear. You know I wouldn't do that.
Yes, perhaps, but I'm not sure about your forebears up in their castle.
Oh, I'm sure they were the very height of morality.
Right, well, get on with it.
Okey dokey, here goes.
So, the now former farm workers and their families had nowhere to go except the unbelievably ghastly slums of the rapidly growing cities. A few found work for ridiculously low rates of pay and slavishly long working hours, but this was before the Industrial Revolution, when there was much more work, much less pay, and much worse conditions. And the rest, the great unwashed and unemployed, not that most of the nobs were much if any better washed, this was Britain after all, struggled from day to day just to survive.
And, of course, this appalling poverty forced people to resort to making a living however they could. Women, children of both sexes, and some men resorted to prostitution, catching and spreading terrible diseases and dying incredibly cruel deaths, leaving hordes of orphans to "survive" on the streets.
Others resorted to crime. Not bank robbing, or corporate fraud, but theft of anything that could be easily stolen and turned into cash that could be spent on rent, food, or the things that helped them escape for a little from their frightful lives, like booze, tobacco, and sex. Or, of course, they could steal food itself, like the fabled loaves of bread.