ABSTRACT
So far as the fortunes of English foreign trade in the fifteenth century resembled the fortunes of one of its branches, the export trade in woollens, they admit of simple description. They take on the aspect of two similar cyclical movements. The first began with a depression appearing at the opening of the century, persisting more or less through the first quarter of it, but succeeded by a recovery which was characteristic of the two or three following decades. This period of prosperous trade, in turn, gave way to a second depression which lasted throughout the third quarter of the century; but, as before, prosperity was restored in the following twenty-five years. 1
