ABSTRACT
It has been commonly supposed that the thirteenth century witnessed a decline in the nascent cloth industry of England, a decline which was only to be checked and con verted into renewed advance and yet more spectacular progress under the vigorous patronage of Edward III. We read, for instance, of the “ impoverished state” of the industry “ on the eve of the great experiment” ; of how “ something was wrong with the industry, and if it was to be given fresh life something must be done.” 2 Such a con ception of arrested growth and even of decay is not, however, borne out by a close investigation of the sources. On the contrary, they reveal rather the expansion and rapid development of the industry up to the eve of the accession of Edward III. The reason for this discrepancy is not that the sources themselves have been misinterpreted, but that only one group of them, the urban records, has been hitherto explored in this connection. It has been too readily assumed that the history of industry in England at this time was to be found in the history of her towns and their gilds, and that symptoms of decline evident here signified a decline in the industry as a whole. In reality, however, rural records also throw a flood of light on the industrial history of the time, and when they are considered in conjunction with those of the towns it becomes apparent that the century was one of
striking progress industrially, though of equally striking change and upheaval. It witnessed, in fact, an industrial revolution due to scientific discoveries and changes in tech nique ; a revolution which brought poverty, unemployment and discontent to certain old centres of the industry, but wealth, opportunity and prosperity to the country as a whole, and which was destined to alter the face of medieval England.
