ABSTRACT
This period saw the growth of a national market, which slowly began to replace local markets. Mercantilism was the predominant economic view in this period with its emphasis on the competition between countries (the up-coming nation-states) and the “wealth of nations.” The production of wool and woolen goods was the major industry, as it had been throughout the preceding centuries. In 1560 grain overtook wool in profitability in England. The focus of commercial activity lay increasingly in the Southeast and in London, where a population mix consisting of people from the various regions came together with substantial consequences for the language.
