Mortality, Trade, Money and Credit in Late Medieval England (1285-1531) (Variorum Collected Studies)

The eleven articles in this volume examine controversial subjects of central importance to medieval economic historians. Topics include the relative roles played by money and credit in financing the economy, whether credit could compensate for shortages of coin, and whether it could counteract the devastating mortality of the Black Death. Drawing on a detailed analysis of the Statute Merchant and Staple records, the articles chart the chronological and geographical changes in the economy from the late-thirteenth to the early-sixteenth centuries. This period started with the triumph of English merchants over alien exporters in the early 1300s, and concluded in the early 1500s with cloth exports overtaking wool in value. The articles assess how these changes came about, as well as the degree to which both political and economic forces altered the pattern of regional wealth and enterprise in ways which saw the northern towns decline, and London rise to be the undisputed financial as well as the political capital of England. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 CONTENTS 8 List of illustrations 10 List of abbreviations 11 Preface 12 Acknowledgements 13 1 Some new evidence of crises and trends of mortality in late medieval England 16 2 Alien finance and the development of the medieval English economy, 1285–1511 45 3 The impact of crises on credit in the late medieval English economy 67 4 English medieval weight standards revisited 86 5 Finance on the frontier: money and credit in Northumberland, Westmorland and Cumberland, in the later middle ages 109 6 The intervention of the crown and the effectiveness of the sheriff in the execution of judicial writs, c. 1355–1530 129 7 The rise and decline of medieval York: a reassessment 160 8 The rise of London as a financial capital in late medieval England 191 9 Gold, credit, and mortality: distinguishing deflationary pressures on the late medieval English economy 210 10 Credit and the effect of the Black Death on regional commercial economies, 1350–1369 234 11 A crisis of credit in the fifteenth century, or of historical interpretation? 254 Bibliography 275 Index 295 Middle,Ages;,Mortality;,Money;,Medieval,economy;,Wool,trade;,Black,Death;,Cloth,trade;,York;,London;,Medieval,Crown Middle Ages,Mortality,Money,Medieval economy,Wool trade,Black Death,Cloth trade,York,London,Medieval Crown "The eleven articles in this volume examine controversial subjects of central importance to medieval economic historians. Topics include the relative roles played by money and credit in financing the economy, whether credit could compensate for shortages of coin, and whether it could counteract the devastating mortality of the Black Death. Drawing on a detailed analysis of the Statute Merchant and Staple records, the articles chart the chronological and geographical changes in the economy from the late-thirteenth to the early-sixteenth centuries. This period started with the triumph of English merchants over alien exporters in the early 1300s, and concluded in the early 1500s with cloth exports overtaking wool in value. The volume assesses how these changes came about, as well as the ways in which both political and economic forces altered the pattern of regional wealth and enterprise, in ways which saw the northern towns decline, and London rise to be the undisputed financial capital of England"-- Provided by publisher