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The Mercery of London - Trade, Goods and People, 1130-1578 (Paperback)
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The Mercery of London - Trade, Goods and People, 1130-1578 (Paperback)
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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.
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