The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

Chapter Four: Alchemy and Economic Projects
Whilst the relatively prosperous state of Crown finances during 1570s and early
1580s removed the urgent need for gold, Cecil did not ignore the potential of alchemical
enterprise. Rather, alchemy played a role in his attempts to improve England‘s industrial
competitiveness. First as Principal Secretary, then as Lord Treasurer from 1572, Cecil
initiated, supported and monitored a number of schemes intended to strengthen and
expand the English economy. Cecil considered economic development to be a central
factor in ensuring the security of England in an increasingly hostile European political
climate. As distinct from Cecil‘s attempts to secure Crown finances, his industrial projects
often had broader aims and a more distinct sense of coherent policy making. Both
Elizabeth and Cecil were obsessed with securing the position of a Protestant England
through the patronage of large scale industrial projects. These projects would reduce
England‘s economic dependence on imports from Catholic Europe, which could not be
relied on in times of war. In this way they complemented an increasingly Mercantilist
understanding of the economy, as contemporaries believed that securing a positive balance
of trade was essential to increasing England‘s share of the fixed amount of available wealth.
The historical debate surrounding Elizabethan economic initiatives has focused on
whether Cecil had a clearly defined economic policy. Historians such as Norman Jones
have argued that Cecil had no real understanding of the economy, and that he adhered
instead to the medieval belief that ―the economic ills of the country grew out of greed,
social climbing and lack of discipline‖. 1 Recently, however, Felicity Heal and Clive
Holmes, through cataloguing the patterns of Cecil‘s economic patronage, have persuasively
argued that Cecil had a more cohesive understanding of the economy. They maintain that
1 Norman L. Jones, ‗William Cecil and the Making of Economic Policy in the 1560s and Early 1570s‘ in Paul
A. Fiddler and Thomas J. Mayer, (eds.), Political Thought and the Tudor Commonwealth, London, 1992, pp. 172-73.
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