IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ehsrev/v73y2020i4p885-913.html

Mites and merchants: the crisis of English wool and textile trade revisited, c. 1275–1330

Author

Listed:
  • Philip Slavin

Abstract

On the basis of 7,871 manorial accounts from 601 sheep‐rearing demesnes and 187 tithe receipts from 15 parishes, this article addresses the origins, scale, and impact of the wool and textile production crisis in England, c. 1275–1350. The article argues that recurrent outbreaks of scab disease depressed sheep population and wool production levels until the early 1330s. The disease, coupled with warfare and taxation, also had a decisive role in depressing the volumes of wool exports. Despite this fact, wool merchants were still conducting business with major wool producers, who desperately needed access to the capital to replenish their flocks.

Suggested Citation

  • Philip Slavin, 2020. "Mites and merchants: the crisis of English wool and textile trade revisited, c. 1275–1330," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(4), pages 885-913, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:73:y:2020:i:4:p:885-913
    DOI: 10.1111/ehr.12969
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12969
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ehr.12969?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Broadberry,Stephen & Campbell,Bruce M. S. & Klein,Alexander & Overton,Mark & van Leeuwen,Bas, 2015. "British Economic Growth, 1270–1870," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107070783.
    2. Alexandra Sapoznik, 2013. "The productivity of peasant agriculture: Oakington, Cambridgeshire, 1360–99," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(2), pages 518-544, May.
    3. Power, Eileen, 1941. "The Wool Trade in English Medieval History," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number power1941.
    4. Philip Slavin, 2012. "The Great Bovine Pestilence and its economic and environmental consequences in England and Wales, 1318–50," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 65(4), pages 1239-1266, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matt Raven, 2022. "Wool smuggling from England's eastern seaboard, c. 1337–45: An illicit economy in the late middle ages," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(4), pages 1182-1213, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leonor Freire Costa & António Henriques & Nuno Palma, 2022. "Anatomy of a Premodern State," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2208, Economics, The University of Manchester, revised May 2024.
    2. Olegas Beriozovas & Dalia Perkumienė & Mindaugas Škėma & Abdellah Saoualih & Larbi Safaa & Marius Aleinikovas, 2024. "Research Advancement in Forest Property Rights: A Thematic Review over Half a Decade Using Natural Language Processing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-28, September.
    3. repec:ehl:lserod:119284 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Cormac Ó Gráda, 2018. "The Next World and the New World: Relief, Migration, and the Great Irish Famine," Working Papers 201821, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    5. Bassino, Jean-Pascal & Broadberry, Stephen & Fukao, Kyoji & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Takashima, Masanori, 2019. "Japan and the great divergence, 730–1874," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-22.
    6. Vincent Geloso & Peter Lindert, 2020. "Relative costs of living, for richer and poorer, 1688–1914," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 14(3), pages 417-442, September.
    7. Broadberry, Stephen & Ghosal, Sayantan & Proto, Eugenio, 2017. "Anonymity, efficiency wages and technological progress," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 379-394.
    8. Bredin, Don & Fountas, Stilianos & Karras, Georgios, 2026. "European booms and busts over six centuries," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    9. Milanovic, Branko, 2024. "How rich were the rich? An empirically-based taxonomy of pre-industrial bases of wealth," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    10. van Bavel, Bas, 2016. "The Invisible Hand?: How Market Economies have Emerged and Declined Since AD 500," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199608133.
    11. Jane Humphries & Jacob Weisdorf, 2019. "Unreal Wages? Real Income and Economic Growth in England, 1260–1850," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(623), pages 2867-2887.
    12. Guido Alfani, 2022. "Epidemics, Inequality, and Poverty in Preindustrial and Early Industrial Times," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 3-40, March.
    13. Broadberry, Stephen & Wallis, John Joseph, 2025. "Growing, Shrinking, and Long-Run Economic Performance: Historical Perspectives on Economic Development," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 85(2), pages 505-540, June.
    14. Yannick Malevergne & Didier Sornette, 2016. "Wealth and Income Inequalities ← → r > g," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 16-69, Swiss Finance Institute.
    15. Nicholas Crafts, 2022. "Slow real wage growth during the Industrial Revolution: productivity paradox or pro-rich growth? [Engels’ pause: technical change, capital accumulation, and inequality in the British industrial revolution]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(1), pages 1-13.
    16. Robert Bates & Avner Greif & Smita Singh, 2002. "Organizing Violence," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 46(5), pages 599-628, October.
    17. B. Zorina Khan, 2018. "Human capital, knowledge and economic development: evidence from the British Industrial Revolution, 1750–1930," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 12(2), pages 313-341, May.
    18. Niclas Griesshaber & Jochen Streb, 2025. "Multimodal LLMs for Historical Dataset Construction from Archival Image Scans: German Patents (1877-1918)," Papers 2512.19675, arXiv.org.
    19. Jakob B. Madsen & Fabrice Murtin, 2017. "British economic growth since 1270: the role of education," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 229-272, September.
    20. Madsen, Jakob B., 2019. "Wealth and inequality over eight centuries of British capitalism," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 246-260.
    21. Madsen, Jakob B. & Robertson, Peter E. & Ye, Longfeng, 2019. "Malthus was right: Explaining a millennium of stagnation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 51-68.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:73:y:2020:i:4:p:885-913. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ehsukea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.