Enterprise, Money and Credit in England before the Black Death 1285-1349

This book charts the contributions made to the development of the late medieval English economy by enterprise, money, and credit in a period which saw its major export trade in wool, which earned most of its money-supply, suffer from prolonged periods of warfare, high taxation, adverse weather, and mortality of sheep. Consequently, the economy suffered from severe shortages of coin, as well as from internal political conflicts, before the plague of 1348-9 halved the population. The book examines from the Statute Merchant certificates of debt, the extent to which credit, which normally reflects economic activity, was affected by these events, and the extent to which London, and the leading counties were affected differently by them. The analysis covers the entire kingdom, decade by decade, and thereby contributes to the controversy whether over-population or shortage of coin most inhibited its development.

Auteur

Pamela Nightingale read history at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she stayed to do research for a Ph.D. which she was awarded in 1963. Her first three books were on the history of British India and Chinese Central Asia from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, until she changed her field to write a book on the trade and politics of medieval London. Her research led her to investigate and then to calendar the huge collection of certificates of debt in the National Archives on which this present book is based. Her publications, two Senior Research Fellowships held at the Ashmolean Museum, and regular participation in an Oxford research seminar on medieval economic and social history led to her election in 1999 as a member of Oxford University's Faculty of History, and in 2010 she was awarded an Oxford D.Litt. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Contenu

Chapter 1: The Place of Credit and Coin in the Medieval English Economy

The Relationship of Credit to the Monetary Economy

The Shortage of Coin

The Crown and the Coinage

Barter

The Constraints on Credit

Usury and Interest

Risks of Default

The Instability of Credit

The Balance of Trade and Coin

The Wool Trade and Credit

Chapter 2: The Records of the Statutes of Acton Burnell, and Merchants, 12841349

The Registries

Conflicting interpretations of the Certificates

The Certificates of Debt as a Sample of Credit

A London Merchant's record of Credit.

The Relationship between Credit and Wool Exports

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Chapter 3: The Contribution of Alien Creditors to the English Economy, 12851289

Italian Creditors, 1285-9

Cahorsin Creditors, 1285-9

Gascon Creditors, 1285-9

German Merchants

Other alien creditors

London and Alien Merchants

Chapter 4: English Wealth and Credit, 12851289

London and its Region

Shropshire

Lincolnshire

Yorkshire

Hampshire

Credit in other coastal counties

Northumberland

The Inland Counties

Chapter 5: The Growth of English Credit, 12901294

Hampshire

Yorkshire

Shropshire

Lincolnshire

London

Bristol

The New Registries

Nottingham

Chester

Chapter 6: Warfare, Currency Confusion, and Falling Credit, 12951299

Hampshire

Lincolnshire

Yorkshire

Shropshire

Herefordshire

Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Devon

London

Chapter 7: Recovery and New Patterns of Credit, 13001304

London

Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire

Lincolnshire

Norfolk

Yorkshire

Shropshire

Herefordshire

Devon

**Chapter 8: Monetary Expansion and Economic Growth, 13...