The English Wool Market, c.1230–1327

Abstract

The wool market was extremely important to the English medieval economy and wool dominated the English export trade from the late thirteenth century to its decline in the late fifteenth century. Wool was at the forefront of the establishment of England as a European political and economic power and this 2007 volume was the first study of the medieval wool market in over 20 years. It investigates in detail the scale and scope of advance contracts for the sale of wool; the majority of these agreements were formed between English monasteries and Italian merchants, and the book focuses on the data contained within them. The pricing structures and market efficiency of the agreements are examined, employing practices from modern finance. A detailed case study of the impact of entering into such agreements on medieval English monasteries is also presented, using the example of Pipewell Abbey in Northamptonshire.

The Knights Templar in English towns

“…91 The Templars contracted to supply wool from the Lincolnshire houses of Temple Bruer, Eagle and Willoughton to the Bardi and Portenare merchants in 1308, which may have been exported through Boston. 92 The Templars held two tofts in Boston in 1185, one in demesne, which, like the Cistercian property, may have served as a base to conduct business with merchants, particularly during the major fair that took place in the town. 93 The Templar property in the port towns of Dunwich, Shoreham and Dover may have served a similar function.…”

A reappraisal of the freehold property market in late medieval England

“…Table 2 suggests that property sales were to some extent correlated with fluctuations in the English wool and cloth trade of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as England's main export trade transformed from raw materials to finished cloth. 73 The slight rise in the number of fines during the 1490s may also be attributed to the statute of 1489, which partially reinstated the bar to rival claims to property in place prior to 1361 (see n. 23). 74…”

Cambium non est mutuum: exchange and interest rates in medieval Europe

“…Postan, ‘Credit’, pp. 234–8; Fratianni and Spinelli, ‘Italian city‐states’; Bell, Brooks, and Dryburgh, English wool market ; Bell and Sutcliffe, ‘Valuing medieval annuities’; Briggs, Credit and village society .…”

“…Brunt and Cannon, ‘Grain of truth’; McCloskey and Nash, ‘Corn at interest’, pp. 178–85; Bell, Brook, and Dryburgh, English wool market , pp. 139–43.…”