ABSTRACT
The two significant records of the dealings of London tradesmen with foreign merchants and with each other are namely: cordwainers and the potters. The most valuable material for the economic history of the middle ages are the recognisances of debt which are frequently to be found in great numbers in the public archives of states and municipalities. This chapter illustrates the relations existing at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth centuries between the shopkeepers of London in a variety of trades and their creditors. The chapter begins with the trade in wine, which is the foreign commodity that bulks largest in early commerce. Wine was the one article of daily consumption—for the middle and upper classes a necessity rather than a luxury—that had to be brought from abroad. Below the class of independent tradesmen who sell their own bread, there was a lower rank of bakers who worked upon the materials supplied by their customers.
