ABSTRACT
The idea that there was once a self-sufficient society dies hard.2 If such a society ever existed it had certainly disappeared in England by the Middle Ages, and had probably gone long before. Even those who still hold to the idea of a largely self-sufficient rural society would accept that the aristocracy lived at a far higher and more complex level than their inferiors. Few would be surprised by Dyer's description of an aristocratic way of life in the late middle ages transcending geographical differences and resulting in a largely international society with a common culture. He suggests that there is plenty of evidence of a cosmopolitan repertoire of dishes recorded in medieval cookery books involving not only local staples but also imported items like wine and spices. Such a diet involved substantial purchasing. For example, during 1452/53 the Duke of Buckingham's household consumed no less than 2lb. of spices per day on average through the year.3 Most aristocratic and gentry accounts of the period reveal also a heavy expenditure on fabrics, and though much of this was produced locally, there was at least some outlay on imported silks and linens.4 Metal goods made of silver, pewter and the copper alloys were also important elements in the household expenditure, and virtually all must have come from specialist producers. 5 Although some purchasing, maybe most of it, was through fairs and markets, some was undoubtedly from shops, as revealed in the formidable shop inventory of a Southampton merchant who
3 Dyer (1989), Standards of living, pp. 63, 66-7. 4 Dyer (1989), Standards of living, pp. 78-9 5 See for example, Hatcher and Barker (1974), History of British pewter, chapter 2.
