The English Woollen Industry 1500–1750

Abstract

This series, specially commissioned by the Economic History Society, provides a guide to the current interpretations of the key themes of economic and social history in which advances have recently been made or in which there has been significant debate. Originally entitled 'Studies in Economic History', in 1974 the series had its scope extended to include topics in social history, and the new series title, 'Studies in Economic and Social History', signalises this development. The series gives readers access to the best work done, helps them to draw their own conclusions in major fields of study, and by means of the critical bibliography in each book guides them in the selection of further reading. The aim is to provide a springboard to further work rather than a set of prepackaged conclusions or shortcuts. ECONOMIC HISTORY SOCIETY The Economic History Society, which numbers over 3000 members, publishes the Economic History Review four timt's a year (free to members) and holds an annual conference. Enquiries about membership should be addressed to the Assistant Secretary, Economic History Society, Peterhouse, Cambridge. Full-time students may join at special rates.

The Clothiers’ Century, 1450–1550

“…59 There were isolated examples of a factory system, but these were unusual as the capital investment and operational inflexibility usually offset any economies of scale. 60 The Clothiers' Century, 1450-1550 7 Leading complete clothiers making quality cloth had one thing in common: they operated a wool warehouse, and tightly-controlled yarn preparation. 61 Skills in weaving, fulling and finishing were of little value if yarn quality was poor.…”

The entrepreneurial spirit and ‘The life of the poor’: communal ideology and social struggle in the prose fictions of Thomas Deloney

“…12 No such operations existed in Elizabethan England, and my point is that Deloney's represents such factories not simply to celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit of individual men. Instead, these recreations point to Deloney's faith in the ability of large-scale cloth production (and similarly of shoemaking in The Gentle Craft books) to provide for the poor and the commonwealth as a whole.…”

Kicking Away the Ladder: An Unofficial History of Capitalism, Especially in Britain and the United States

“…95-96). George Daniel Ramsay (1982) also documents that there was legislation in 1489, 1512, 1513, and 1536 that banned the export of unfinished cloths, save for coarse pieces below a certain market value, reflecting the then "influential view that if it was preferable to export wool in the form of cloth rather than in the raw state, then it was likewise better to ship cloth fully dressed and dyed than in a semi-manufactured state, 'unbarbed and unshorn'" (p. 61).…”