Sheep, shown here in the 1240s or the 1250s, became increasingly important to English agriculture.
The medieval English wool trade was one of the most important factors in the medieval English economy.[1] The medievalist John Munro notes that "[n]o form of manufacturing had a greater impact upon the economy and society of medieval Britain than did those industries producing cloths from various kinds of wool."[2] The trade's liveliest period, 1250–1350, was 'an era when trade in wool had been the backbone and driving force in the English medieval economy'.[3]
The wool trade was a major driver of enclosure (the privatisation of common land) in English agriculture, which in turn had major social consequences, as part of the British Agricultural Revolution.
Among the lasting monuments to the success of the trade are the 'wool churches' of East Anglia and the Cotswolds; the London Worshipful Company of Clothworkers; and the fact that since the fourteenth century, the presiding officer of the House of Lords has sat on the Woolsack, a chair stuffed with wool.
^Miller, Edward (1965). "The Fortunes of the English Textile Industry during the Thirteenth Century". The Economic History Review. 18 (1): 64–82. doi:10.2307/2591874. ISSN 0013-0117.
^Munro 2003a, p. 181.
^Bell, Brooks & Dryburgh 2007, p. 1.
and 26 Related for: Medieval English wool trade information
A wool church is an English church financed primarily by donations from rich merchants and farmers who had benefitted from the medievalwooltrade, hoping...
materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal wool. As an animal fiber, wool consists of protein together...
African rams in the medieval period, and English rams from fine-wool breeds in the 15th century.: 9 Although Spain exported wool to England, the Low...
fricative. This would be a logical result of the MedievalEnglishwooltrade, which brought the English in close linguistic contact with the cloth merchants...
though also of sheep breeding. The medieval Englishwooltrade was one of the most important factors in the English economy. The main sheep-shearing was an...
Anglia that were prosperous during the peak of the Englishwooltrade have retained many of their medieval buildings: Clare “now an exceptionally attractive...
Nicholas of Ludlow, a prominent Shropshire wool merchant. He amassed a fortune in the medievalEnglishwooltrade and established a career as a money lender...
European historiography, the term "staple" refers to the entire medieval system of trade and its taxation; its French equivalent is étape, and its German...
fricative. This would be a logical result of the MedievalEnglishwooltrade, which brought the English in close linguistic contact with the cloth merchants...
The economics of English towns and trade in the Middle Ages is the economic history of English towns and trade from the Norman invasion in 1066, to the...
incorporated into the Swan Hotel in 1963. Lavenham Guildhall MedievalEnglishwooltrade The Buildings of England, Suffolk. Nikolaus Pevsner, Yale University...
The medievalEnglish saw their economy as comprising three groups – the clergy, who prayed; the knights, who fought; and the peasants, who worked the land...
success, with the economy buoyed by profits from the international wool and cloth trade, but by 1450 the country was in crisis, facing military failure in...
of the wooltrade. Two Birmingham merchants represent Warwickshire at the council held in York in 1322 to discuss the standardisation of wool staples...
growth was facilitated by trade with the continent. The most important exports were unprocessed raw materials, including wool, hides, salt, fish, animals...
Wool House is a medieval building in Southampton, Hampshire, England which was built to serve the wooltrade. It has since had various uses. The Wool...
economic players both as landowners and as middlemen in the expanding wooltrade. In particular, the Cistercians led the development of the grange system...
classical culture in Italy. During the last medieval century, naval expeditions in search for new trade routes introduced the Age of Discovery. The Middle...
for quality Welsh woollen products. Wool processing includes removing the fleece by shearing, classing the wool by quality, untangling, carding and spinning...
and several parts of England at the end of the medieval period. The raw material was short staple wool, carded and spun into yarn and then woven on a...
and their main trading base in England, between the 13th and 16th centuries. The main goods that the League exported from London were wool and from the...
Merchants of the Staple, an English company which controlled the export of wool to the continent during the late medieval period Staple Design, a visual...
Staplers, is an English company incorporated by Royal Charter in 1319 (and so the oldest mercantile corporation in England) dealing in wool, skins, lead...
for English merchants in Burgundian courts were poorly effected. The importance of the treaty for England, who still relied heavily on the wooltrade through...
Global Information