Food and transportation in England 1600s

In the 1600s there were many new foods that had just started to develop some of the foods we have now. The rich had just started to come up with ways to make their food better. In the late 1600s they started eating ice cream and figuring out how they cold keep it could. The rich also had a reputation for loving meat and not eating many veggies.  In the morning and at dinner they like white bread and coffee or tea, which were both discovered in the mid 16^th century.  The rich had many of the food we have now.

The poor did not have as easy a time.  The poor of England ate a lot of veggies and not much meat because it was so expensive and very hard to keep. They enjoyed bread, which was made form rye and it was not nearly has expensive. They ate cheese and onions as well. They almost never ate seafood because it was so hard to keep and to keep it you had to pay, which was hard for these people. They had hard time finding ways to keep things.

 There are however things that the both have in common. Both the rich and the poor started eating with forks in the late 1600s.  They both thought that fruit was bad for you and ate it only after it had been cooked.  In the mid 1600sthey started eating turkey and potatoes. They also enjoyed bananas and pineapples with they argued were not fruit. There were not much more they had in common.

Transportation in the 1600s was not as easy or fast as it is now.  Stagecoaches started running between big cities. They really were not comfortable. Turnpike roads had just started to open but they were very expensive. The men were supposed to help with the roads but that was very dangerous. The money that the people paid to use them went to keeping the roads in good shape but there were just not enough hands to keep tem in god shape and that made then dangerous. If you wanted to travel then you either had to go slowly or risk the danger or the roads.

 The methods of travel were slower then they are now. If you traveled 50 to 60 kilometers in a day then you traveled very fast. The rich traveled slowly on purpose.  It would take about a week from London to Plymouth. You could also ride a horse but by the 1600s horses were used manly for transporting goods. If you did not have a horse of your own then you could rent a horse. There were not many ways you could go very fast.

Before the 1600s you really could not send messages to others if you did not want to personally deliver it. The king sent his messengers to deliver letters to the recipient. If someone wanted to get a message to someone else they could pay the kings messengers to get the letter t someone else. That is how royal mail started. If you wanted to get a message to someone then you would have to pay a lot. Most poor people could not afford to send messages. The royal mail was really only taken advantage of by the rich.

There were many ports off of England so that there could be water travel as well as land travel.  As well as getting goods form place to place by horses, it was also common to us boats. Water travel was much improved and the boats were probably much more comfortable then any means of land travel.

    We have much more efficient means of travel now. Today if you want to go anywhere all you have to do is hop in a car where as back then you would have to plan in advance, saddle your horse, get a stagecoach ticket or find some way of getting hold of a boat. We also know what foods are good for you and how to make things taste good. Back in the 1600s they would not have even thought about candy or junk food.