Local Markets and Regional Trade in Medieval Exeter

This book offers a detailed study of the types of trade that occurred in a medieval English market town. It focuses above all on the identity of buyers and sellers in late fourteenth-century Exeter, a port town that enjoyed particularly good overland connections throughout south-western England. More than most town histories, it explores the dynamic relationship between town and country, and traces how the urban center linked local and regional networks of exchange.

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.

This book offers a detailed study of the types of trade that occurred in a medieval English market town. It focuses above all on the identity of buyers and sellers in late fourteenth-century Exeter, a port town which enjoyed particularly good overland connections throughout south-western England.