Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The aim of the project was to investigate the scale and scope of advance contracts for the sale of wool in the Middle Ages. The project was primarily interested in data contained within these contracts and took a unique interdisciplinary approach, employing practices from modern finance, to test the pricing methods and structures of these contracts in detail.

The methodology of the project required the location, transcription and translation of the contracts held at The National Archives. This produced the resource of 228 contracts transcribed and translated from French and Latin. The evidence from within these contracts has widened the dimensions of the wool trade to all major monastic orders and a larger range of merchants from Southern France, the Low Countries and England. Diverse financial details contained within the contracts- prices per sack and advance payments agreed by individual merchant societies dependent on variable wool quality and preparation and prevailing fiscal conditions - principally highlight the ebb and flow of the medieval English wool trade and the European credit economy. The projects findings suggest that there is a much richer document base and evidence of credit relationships across the whole of the monastic sector and the European merchant community than previous research has suggested.




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The digital resource contains a summary of the contracts utilised in the research project including reference, date, seller, buyer and summary of the contracts.

The full transcriptions and translations of the contracts utilised in the research project have also been deposited with History Data Service, however they cannot be made available until at least Autumn 2009.