Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Edward Miller: an appreciation
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Economic development in the early twelfth century
- 2 Lothian and beyond: the economy of the ‘English empire’ of David I
- 3 Boroughs, markets and trade in northern England, 1000–1216
- 4 Peasant deer poachers in the medieval forest
- 5 The growth of London in the medieval English economy
- 6 The bankruptcy of the Scali of Florence in England, 1326–1328
- 7 The English export trade in cloth in the fourteenth century
- 8 A medieval tax haven: Berwick upon Tweed and the English crown: 1333–1461
- 9 Taxation and communities in late medieval England
- 10 Peasants and the collapse of the manorial economy on some Ramsey Abbey estates
- 11 The famuli in the later Middle Ages
- 12 The great slump of the mid-fifteenth century
- 13 Lorenzo de' Medici's London branch
- 14 The trade of late medieval Chester, 1500–1550
- Bibliography of Edward Miller's published works
7 - The English export trade in cloth in the fourteenth century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Edward Miller: an appreciation
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Economic development in the early twelfth century
- 2 Lothian and beyond: the economy of the ‘English empire’ of David I
- 3 Boroughs, markets and trade in northern England, 1000–1216
- 4 Peasant deer poachers in the medieval forest
- 5 The growth of London in the medieval English economy
- 6 The bankruptcy of the Scali of Florence in England, 1326–1328
- 7 The English export trade in cloth in the fourteenth century
- 8 A medieval tax haven: Berwick upon Tweed and the English crown: 1333–1461
- 9 Taxation and communities in late medieval England
- 10 Peasants and the collapse of the manorial economy on some Ramsey Abbey estates
- 11 The famuli in the later Middle Ages
- 12 The great slump of the mid-fifteenth century
- 13 Lorenzo de' Medici's London branch
- 14 The trade of late medieval Chester, 1500–1550
- Bibliography of Edward Miller's published works
Summary
The fortunes of England's cloth industry and trade in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries have long been a matter of interest and, thirty years ago, Edward Miller contributed to the debate an essential, wide-ranging and careful article, whose value is demonstrated by the frequency of its citation. With Miller, most historians would probably accept that England's industry declined or at best failed to expand in the thirteenth century, that this had much to do with competition from Flemish imports, that certainly some urban centres were in difficulty while some country areas grew. Many would probably also agree with Anthony Bridbury who, with his usual invigorating criticism of all earlier discussions, emphasised the absence of secure figures, and the fact that evidence can be read in several ways. However, without doubt the evidence assembled over the years shows that whatever the industry's difficulties, it was far from dead in the early fourteenth century. Continuing high imports of mordants and dyestuffs, especially of woad, the crown's willingness to support groups with an interest in home industry (as in the prohibition of the export of teasels and fullers earth in 1326 at the behest of Londoners) and the tightening of the cloth assize (which may have been meant to hamper foreign competition), all suggest growth before 1347. In his article Miller also identified the diversity of English products, and suggested that the cheaper cloths available indicated that England was responding to market difficulties by falling back on ‘slump’ products.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Progress and Problems in Medieval EnglandEssays in Honour of Edward Miller, pp. 121 - 147Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996
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