Local Markets and Regional Trade in Medieval Exeter

A detailed study of the types of trade that occurred in late fourteenth-century Exeter.

Maryanne Kowaleski (Author)

9780521521956, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 9 October 2003

460 pages, 7 maps 43 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.9 cm, 0.712 kg

"Maryanne Kowaleski has produced an excelletn study that provids a window into the life of local market towns, especially Exeter, important as a regional market and a port." Timothy J. Runyan, The American Neptune

This book examines the vital role of market towns in the medieval economy. It focuses on Exeter, and on how it served as an important link in a marketing chain that connected local, regional, and overseas trade. Although small by most standards (the population stood at around 3,100 in 1377), Exeter was the largest town in south-western England and had long played a central role in the marketing hierarchy of the region. Its functions can be illustrated through prosopographical analysis, a methodology which creates 'collective biographies' of specific groups of traders, thereby revealing the identity - status, occupation, residence - of buyers and sellers, the goods they exchanged, where they traded, and how they marketed their goods. Such an approach also helps to characterise the town's regional networks of trade and hinterland.

Introduction
Part I. The Regional Economy of Medieval Devon: 1. Agriculture, industry and trade
2. Markets, fairs and towns
Part II. The Economy of Medieval Exeter: 3. Economy and government in medieval Exeter
4. Commerce and occupational structure
Part III. Local Markets and Regional Networks of Trade: 5. Transaction costs
6. The port trade and the hinterland
7. Internal trade and the hinterland
Conclusion
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], British & Irish history [HBJD1]