Credit and Trade in Later Medieval England, 1353-1532

This book challenges the notion that economic crises are modern phenomena through its exploration of the tumultuous ‘credit-crunch’ of the later Middle Ages. It illustrates clearly how influences such as the Black Death, inter-European warfare, climate change and a bullion famine occasioned severe and prolonged economic decline across fifteenth century England. Early chapters discuss trends in lending and borrowing, and the use of credit to fund domestic trade through detailed analysis of the Statute Staple and rich primary sources. The author then adopts a broad-based geographic lens to examine provincial credit before focusing on London’s development as the commercial powerhouse in late medieval business.

Richard Goddard is Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of Nottingham, UK. He is author ofLordship and Medieval Urbanization: Coventry, 1043-1355 (Woodbridge, 2004) and co-editor ofSurvival and Discord in Medieval Society (Turnhout, 2010). He has written extensively on the economic and social history of later medieval England.