In 1580, Elizabeth issued a proclamation, “charging and strictly commanding all manner of persons of what quality so ever they be, to desist and forbear from any new buildings of any house or tenement within three miles from any of the gate of the said city of London.” She attempted to check the growth of London by circling it with an enforced green belt, but it did not succeed.
My study as to the social structure of the time has come to the following conclusion: the failure of the green belt policy had its source in the social status of those days rather than imperfection of the proclamation and control system.
People, who lost their jobs due to the Inclosure for sheepfarming and Monastery Dissolution, went to cities and suburbs, mainly London, for work. Overce of Labour naturally caused a fall in wage.
Rural industry and suburban domestic industry outside the guild regulation employed the cheap labour, cooperated with rich urban merchants, and outrivalled the guild in the city. The craftmen in cities were thus reduced to poverty.
In order to remedy the situation, the Government formed an act touching Weavers and an act touching Divers for Artificers, Labourers, Servants of Husbandry and Apprentices. The royal proclamation to lay the green belt might be one of the preservation policies, but it helped develop monopolization of guild's market within the franchise.
While the London city authorities were managed by the senior members of the livery companies (the rising bourgeoisie), the Government, which closely connected with the new class, tries to maintain the old status of the social order neglecting the social and economical movements. The failure of the England's first green belt policy was referable to this social Status.