The office-holding system and the transformation of local communities in early modern London

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Elizabethan London was a self-governing body consisted of many local communities whose members were mostly the freemen of the City. They participated in the government of the local communities, undertaking the multiple local offices. The main framework of this system remained unchanged but the working principle of it changed gradually from the seventeenth century on. The office evasion by paying the fine and the practice of employment of salaried officers spread. Especially the high mobility of the local inhabitants hampered the efficient functioning of the office holding system. After the Great Fire, the local communities tried successfully to take the movers-in into the system. But backed by the Poor Law, the rate payment became more and more important than the services through the office-holding for the local communities.