ABSTRACT
FROM at least the late Middle Ages, alien craftsmen have worked in London in large numbers, attracted by the prosperity of the capital and its accessibility to royal and noble customers at Westminster. Although wealthy, England was technically less sophisticated than its immediate Northern European neighbours and in return for exporting cloth was importing not only raw silver but quantities of luxury manufactured goods, particularly from the Low Countries and France. But this was contrary to Tudor economic theory and it was preferable to import the craftsmen instead.
