WOOL TRADE
. During the Middle Ages, a major commodity of French commerce was wool. The cloth-
manufacturing industry that had developed in Flanders, Artois, and Picardy had by the
12th century outstripped domestic supplies to meet its needs, and purchasing of English
wool had begun. The principal merchants in the 12th century and much of the 13th were
the Flemings, who bought the output of monastic houses and that of the laity. It was at
times a simple transaction of money for wool. Frequently, wool was purchased by
contract, money being advanced for future delivery. Some of the merchants were
independent traders; others were agents of major wool towns commissioned to buy wools
to meet the towns’ needs.
A conflict begun in 1270 between the kings of England, Henry III and Edward I, and
Marguerite, countess of Flanders, contributed to the undermining of Flemish dominance
in the traffic of English wool. Hostilities lasted for five years, but even peace in 1275 did
not end strained relations between the rulers. Reparations sought by aggrieved merchants
of both sides for goods seized during the conflict occasioned coolness between Edward I
and Gui, Marguerite’s successor, and brought intermittent in-
English wool arrived regularly by ship
to supply the textile industry of
northern France. B.N. fr. 2810, fol.
86v. Courtesy of the Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1868