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A Country Merchant, 1495-1520

Trading and Farming at the End of the Middle Ages

Christopher Dyer author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:17th Apr '14

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A Country Merchant, 1495-1520 cover

Around 1500 England's society and economy had reached a turning point. After a long period of slow change and even stagnation, an age of innovation and initiative was in motion, with enclosure, voyages of discovery, and new technologies. It was an age of fierce controversy, in which the government was fearful of beggars and wary of rebellions. The 'commonwealth' writers such as Thomas More were sharply critical of the greed of profit hungry landlords who dispossessed the poor. This book is about a wool merchant and large scale farmer who epitomises in many ways the spirit of the period. John Heritage kept an account book, from which we can reconstruct a whole society in the vicinity of Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire. He took part in the removal of a village which stood in the way of agricultural 'improvement', ran a large scale sheep farm, and as a 'woolman' spent much time travelling around the countryside meeting with gentry, farmers, and peasants in order to buy their wool. He sold the fleeces he produced and those he gathered to London merchants who exported through Calais to the textile towns of Flanders. The wool growers named in the book can be studied in their native villages, and their lives can be reconstructed in the round, interacting in their communities, adapting their farming to new circumstances, and arranging the building of their local churches. A Country Merchant has some of the characteristics of a biography, is part family history, and part local history, with some landscape history. Dyer explores themes in economic and social history without neglecting the religious and cultural background. His central concerns are to demonstrate the importance of commerce in the period, and to show the contribution of peasants to a changing economy.

[A] rich work ... greatly enhances our appreciation of the more dynamic elements typical of the period. * R. B. Peberdy, Oxoniensia *
Dyer is scrupulous in sticking to his sources, and in doing so provides us with a fresh, deep and measured understanding of rural society at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. * Paul Warde, History *
Christopher Dyer's most recent book shows his characteristic impeccable scholarship and ability to illuminate the lives of otherwise obscure people. ... I am a great fan of Dyer's work and can wholeheartedly recommend this book to other readers. * Kathleen Troup, Parergon *
a significant work of scholarship about a Gloucestershire wool merchant and large-scale farmer. ... Highly informative and a pleasure to read, with much more than local importance. * Northern History *
This is a dense, detailed and highly scholarly book which can be read with pleasure, as well as for enlightenment. * Paul Stamper, Journal of Medieval Archaeology *
Throughout his long and distinguished career, Dyer's work has been characterized by clear presentation of arguments and accessible prose, and this book is no exception. The publisher has sought to broaden the book's appeal to a general readership by including a large number of photographs of places discussed in the text and providing other useful ancillary material. * James Masschaele, Agricultural History Review *

  • Winner of Winner of the Henry A Wallace Award 2012 for the best book on agricultural history outside the US from the Agricultural History Society of America.

ISBN: 9780198715986

Dimensions: 236mm x 159mm x 15mm

Weight: 392g

272 pages