ABSTRACT
This paper investigates the impact of environmental stress and epidemics on economy and society in East Anglia between 1400 and 1440. Eastern Norfolk and Suffolk were fertile lands with good conditions for arable agriculture, and their grain produce entered the national and international grain market at the port of Great Yarmouth. Notwithstanding its favourable position, the region experienced harvest failures amidst the general cooling trend in the first half of the fifteenth century. Customs and court records from Great Yarmouth show not only the varying degree to which the East Anglian grain was drawn into the market and the shifting pattern of its buyers, but also the social consequences of dearth and disease in the port town. This also highlights mitigation strategies by individuals, the municipal administration and the central government.
