Overseas, Inland and Coastal Trade

Overseas trade is one of the best-documented branches of the medieval English economy. The accounts of the collectors of the royal customs and subsidies on imports and exports allow us to see fluctuations in the trade of particular commodities, changes in the origin of the merchants (whether native or alien) and shifts in the ports where trade was carried out. The trustworthiness of the customs evidence has sometimes been questioned but the relatively low rates of duty charged on most goods means that there was little incentive for smuggling. As a result, the customs returns have been seen as reliable guide to changes in overseas trade in the later Middle Ages, such as the switch from the export of raw wool to manufactured woollen cloth or the increasing monopolisation of overseas trade by London at the expense of the provincial ports. By contrast, inland trade has to be investigated from a variety of local sources. These reveal the size of the hinterlands served by particular markets and the relative costs of sending goods by road, river or coast. Coastal trade is even more difficult to study from the surviving evidence and is the aspect of England’s trade which most remains in need of detailed research.