The Mercery of London: Trade, Goods and People, 1130û1578

by Sutton,Anne F.

• ISBN13: 9780754653318
• ISBN10: 0754653315
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-11-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Although mercers have long been recognised as one of the most influential trades in medieval London, this is the first book to offer a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the trade from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. The variety of mercery goods (linen, silk, worsted and small manufactured items including what is now called haberdashery) gave the mercers of London an edge over all competitors. The sources and production of all these commodities is traced throughout the period covered. It was as the major importers and distributors of linen in England that London mercers were able to take control of the Merchant Adventurers and the export of English cloth to the Low Countries. The development of the Adventurers' Company and its domination by London mercers is described from its first privileges of 1296 to after the fall of Antwerp. This book investigates the earliest itinerant mercers and the artisans who made and sold mercery goods (such as the silkwomen of London, so often mercers' wives), and their origins in counties like Norfolk, the source of linen and worsted. These diverse traders were united by the neighbourhood of the London Mercery on Cheapside and by their need for the privileges of the freedom of London. Extensive use of Netherlandish and French sources puts the London Mercery into the context of European Trade, and literary texts add a more personal image of the merchant and his preoccupation with his social status which rose from that of the despised pedlar to the advisor of princes. After a slow start, the Mercers' Company came to include some of the wealthiest and most powerful men of London and administer a wide range of charitable estates such as that of Richard Whittington. The story of how they survived the vicissitudes inflicted by the wars and religious changes of the sixteenth century concludes this fascinating and wide-ranging study.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	ix
Abbreviations	xi
Foreword	xiii
Preface	xv
Definition and Location: The London Mercery, 1130S--1230S	1	(20)
Mercery: The Earliest Definition	3	(2)
The First Mercers of London	5	(8)
The Status of the Mercer -- Birth and Honour	13	(3)
The First London Mercery	16	(5)
`The poor pedlar makes more noise crying his goods than does a rich mercer all his valuable wares': The Mercery Trade in the Thirteenth Century	21	(26)
Le dit du mercier -- The Song of the Mercer	22	(2)
The Artisans of the Merceries of London and Paris	24	(8)
Customers at Fairs	32	(6)
Customers in Towns	38	(5)
The Mercer and his Status	43	(4)
The Origins and Early Associations of London Mercers, 1270s--1340S	47	(20)
Some Mercery Craft Families and Clans	48	(6)
The Men of Norfolk	54	(3)
The Earliest Associations and Regulations of the Workplace	57	(5)
Recognition of the Misteries by the City and the King	62	(5)
`Loving companions who are dwelling in the good city of London': The Commonalty of the Mercery	67	(28)
1304: The First Reference to the `Commonalty of the Mercery'	67	(5)
The Company's Meeting Places	72	(2)
Mercers in Office	74	(8)
Wealth, Office and Standing	82	(5)
`For the common profit of the mistery': The Ordinances of 1348	87	(8)
The Company and the City 1348--94: From the Black Death to the First Charter	95	(34)
The Black Death, Recovery and Opportunities	96	(4)
`Fathers of tidings and tales, both of peace and debate': Mercantile and Civic Conflict	100	(13)
The Mercery Trade: Italians and Haberdashers	113	(8)
The First Charter, 1394: New Policies and Old Prejudices	121	(8)
`Le compaignie del mercerie que dieux veul garder de male et de perile et tutditz convoier a bon aventure': The Move into Mercantile Status, 1290s--1430	129	(32)
The Low Countries: Politics, Privileges and Waterways	129	(10)
Wool	139	(7)
Worsted and Woollen Cloth	146	(4)
Middelburg and Linen	150	(11)
Success on All Sides: The Mercers in Fifteenth-Century London	161	(40)
The Reflected Greatness of the `Sun of Merchandy': Piety, Books and Education	161	(11)
`Good, wise and politic rules ordained and made of old': The Company's Administration	172	(9)
`To rejoice all manner liberties of the Mercery': Mercers in Office	181	(8)
Mercers at Home: Wealth and its Uses	189	(12)
The Mercery Trade in London: Prosperity and Conflict	201	(34)
`Many a worshipful woman ... have lived full honourably and therewith many good households kept'	202	(7)
The Other Ranks: Apprentices, Servants and Shopkeepers	209	(3)
The `Secrets' of the Mercery: Protectionism, and the Provincial Trade	212	(14)
The `Secrets' of the Mercery: Protectionism, Italians and the Luxury Trade	226	(9)
`C'etait une vie d'aventures semblable a celle des chevaliers': The Mercers' Ascendancy among the Adventurers in the Low Countries, 1430s--85	235	(42)
The Battle for Ascendancy among the Adventurers, 1400--30S	239	(2)
The Rise of the Burgundian State, the War of Calais and its Aftermath, 1430--59	241	(16)
The Battles of the Adventurers with the Staplers and Fishmongers, 1455--62	257	(6)
The Mercer Governorships of Caxton, Pickering and Wendy, 1462-85	263	(14)
`All merchandise shall have its course and merchants to have their communication each with other': Trade, 1430s--85	277	(40)
The Mercers and the Men of Cologne	277	(7)
Exports: Wool, Cloth, Worsted and Other Ventures, 1430--85	284	(11)
Imports: Linens and Other Merceries, 1430--85	295	(7)
Adventurers and their Skills	302	(15)
`Give to every man that which is his': The Mercers and the Merchant Adventurers, 1485--1520s	317	(34)
The Period of Readjustment and Reorganization, 1485--90	318	(5)
Mercantile Persistence, Wars, Rebellion and Treaties, 1490--1520	323	(12)
The Merchant Adventurers' Quarrels with the Shearmen and Fullers (the Clothworkers), and with the Staplers of Calais	335	(6)
The Administration of the Merchant Adventurers, 1497--1527: Fees, the Payment of Customs, the Search for Privileges, and their `Exit' from Mercers' Hall	341	(10)
New Responsibilities and Losses, 1490s--1550s	351	(28)
The Battle with the Crown: Ordinances, Civic Autonomy and Taxation	351	(9)
St Thomas of Acre and a Purpose-Built Hall	360	(6)
New Estates: Acquisitions and Losses	366	(3)
The Purchase of St Thomas of Acre, 1542	369	(4)
The Demise of the Chantries and the Purchase of their Rents	373	(6)
Religious Change, Wealth and Faith	379	(30)
The Conservatives	381	(3)
`The gift of a pot of water shall not be in oblivion with God': Evangelists and Reformers	384	(10)
Those Obedient to the Crown	394	(5)
The Mercers' Church, Liturgy, Clergy and Sermons	399	(10)
`The present understanding of the feat of the merchant adventurer': Overseas Trade, 1520s--80s	409	(34)
The Years of Profit, Crisis and Victory: The Mercers as Adventurers, 1520s--58	411	(13)
`Send her Highness Calais again': Mercers as Staplers	424	(3)
`The present understanding of the feat of the merchant adventurer': The Merchant Adventurers and their Charter, 1558--64	427	(5)
The End of the Antwerp Trade and New Trade Routes	432	(11)
The Demise of the Medieval Mercery	443	(32)
Losses in the Mercery Domestic Trade: Artisans, Silkwomen and Maidens, and Shops, Retail and Distribution	444	(5)
The Livery Companies and Their Identities: The Mercers and the Retail of Silk, 1561--76	449	(9)
Recruitment and Wealth: Problems and Remedies	458	(7)
Losses in the Mercery Import Trade: Linen, Fustian and Silk	465	(10)
`A sample and light': Charity and Protestantism	475	(36)
Civic Duties and Burdens	475	(10)
`The world runs on wheels with many': Absenteeism	485	(7)
`If credit were lost all were lost': Men and Lands	492	(8)
`A sample and light'	500	(11)
A New Company?	511	(56)
Appendices
The Ordinances of 1376	515	(6)
Benefactors of the Company before 1578	521	(34)
List of Wardens before 1578	555	(6)
The Election of the Wardens of the Mercers' Company	561	(4)
Mercer Mayors up to 1578	565	(2)
Bibliography	567	(28)
Index	595