Category Books

The Mercery of London: Trade, Goods and People, 1130-1578 »

Authors: Anne F. Sutton
ISBN-13: 9780754653318, ISBN-10: 0754653315
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Limited
Date Published: November 2005
Edition: (Non-applicable)

Author Biography: Anne F. Sutton

Book Synopsis

Sutton, historian emerita to the Mercers' Company of London, begins by reminding readers that mercery was silk, linen, piece-goods of many kinds with an emphasis on dress accessories, small luxuries, and bedding; a mercer was one who dealt in mercery. She offers a broad history of the London trade, drawing on literary as well as historical sources to provide color and reality, and opinions and prejudices about the life and character of a mercer in the Middle Ages. Among her topics are the origins and early associations of London mercers, prosperity and conflict, new responsibilities and losses in the 1490s to 1550s, and the demise of the Medieval mercery. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Ch. 1	Definition and location : the London mercery, 1130s-1230s	1
Ch. 2	The poor pedlar makes more noise crying his goods than does a rich mercer all his valuable wares' : the mercery trade in the thirteenth century	21
Ch. 3	The origins and early associations of London mercers, 1270s-1340s	47
Ch. 4	'Loving companions who are dwelling in the good city of London' : the commonalty of the mercery	67
Ch. 5	The company and the city 1348-94 : from the black death to the first chapter	95
Ch. 6	'Le campaignie del mercerie que dieux veul garder de male et de perile et tutditz convoier a bon aventure' : the move into mercantile status, 1290s-1430	129
Ch. 7	Success on all sides : the mercers in fifteenth-century London	161
Ch. 8	The mercery trade in London : presperity and conflict	201
Ch. 9	'C'etait une vie d'aventures semblable a celle des chevaliers' : the mercers' ascendancy among the adventurers in the low countries, 1430s-85	235
Ch. 10	'All merchandise shall have its course and merchants to have their communication each with other' : trade, 1430s-85	277
Ch. 11	'Give to every man that which is his' : the mercers and the merchant adventurers, 1485-1520s	317
Ch. 12	New responsibilities and losses, 1490s-1550s	351
Ch. 13	Religious change, wealth and faith	379
Ch. 14	'The present understanding of the feat of the merchant adventurer' : overseas trade, 1520s-80s	409
Ch. 15	The demise of the medieval mercery	443
Ch. 16	'A sample and light' : charity and Protestantism	475
Ch. 17	A new company?	511
App. 1	The ordinances of 1376	515
App. 2	Benefactors of the company before 1578	521
App. 3	List of wardens before 1578	555
App. 4	The election of the wardens of the mercers' company	561
App. 5	Mercer mayors up to 1578	565