ABSTRACT
The economic growth of London was driven by the zeal of its craftsmen and merchants in a determined effort to satisfy demand, and aided by the regulatory activities of their respective guilds, but it was also conditioned quite substantially by foreign trade. The church in the English capital was a major landowner, and thus “played an important role in shaping the appearance and character of medieval London”. Though the largest city in England, Medieval London was spatially small by any standards. It was largely concentrated within a relatively restricted area on the north bank of the Thames – roughly a square mile – surrounded by a single Roman wall of three miles in length that dated from around 200 AD. Through the Late Medieval period economic development was every bit as important to the well-being of Londoners as a relatively settled political and ecclesiastical environment.
