posted 03-14-2001 08:06 PM               

Although the wool trade was in relative decline during Henry VI's reign, it was still England's main source of wealth, and few people recognized the downward trend. Other countries - Spain, for example - exported more fleeces, but none could match the quality of the finest Cotswold wool.

'Alle naciouns afferme up to the fulle
In al the world ther is no bettir wolle.'

The export trade to Flanders (Flanders having remowned weavers) was funneled thu Calais so that the merchant staplers, whose company was based there, could control their monopoly and the government its single largest source of revenue. The duty and subsidy on wool amounted to £2 per sack of 364 pounds' weight for residents of Calais and considerably more for other merchants. There were two exceptions to the Staple monopoly: coarse-quality north country wool might be exported direct to the Low Countries from Berwick and Newcastle upon Tyne; and Italian dealers could buy the privilege to ship direct on Venetian, Genoese and, later, Florentine galleys.

In 1454, 51 graded quality ratings were listed in England. The finest wool came from the march of Shropshire and Leominster, closely followed by the Cotswolds. Areas of Lincolnshire and Gloucestershire, then Wiltshire, Yorkshire, and finally Suffolk and Sussex are other regions listed. Although not the best, 'Cotes' or 'Cotswold' were generic terms for all grades of quality wool: the region produced far and away the most.

Most Cotswold wool was exported but increasing amounts were bought by local cloth manufacturers. Those on the Stroudwater near Cotswold were typical; transport from England's premier wool area was cheap, there were large deposits of fuller's earth in the valley, a fast stream to power the waterwheels of the fulling mills and easy access to the great port of Bristol. Nearby Castle Cornbe, now 'the most beautiful village in England', was a noisy mill town where sweated labour lined the pockets of the landowner, Sir John Fastolf, who invested profits from the French wars in the new cloth industry. Wool was increasingly bought by specialist 'broggers' or woolmen who acted for the London staplers and Italian merchant princes: riding the wolds and downs, bargaining with large growers, haggling with small-time farmers, was tiring all-weather work. It might also expose foreigners to outbursts of xenophobia; in the 1450s a parliamentary petition complained of 'Italians who ride about for to buy wool in every part of the realm, gaining knowledge of the privities [secrets] of the same'.

Wool was exported as clippings, when it was sold by the sack, or as wool-fells (skins with the wool on them). Many grades were recognized, down to sweepings from the packing-room floor. 'Sarplers' of clipped wool or bundles of fells were taken by packhorse train to the port, weighed by the shipper's agent and possibly repacked. When the wool reached its destination its quality was inspected once again- at Calais the Staple's agents also checked to ensure it had been properly graded. Large sums of money were involved and fraud and smuggling were common. The government used duties as security for loans and paid its Calais garrison from them; it even regulated payments between merchants from different countries as a measure of bullion control. The 'wool' churches of Suffolk and the Cotswolds, with their superb angel roofs, window traceries and fine monumental brasses, testify to a trade which, for all its fluctuations and gradual decline, was the basis of England's wealth.

From “The Wars of the Roses- From Richard II to the fall of Richard III at Bosworth Field - as seen through the eyes of their contemporaries.”

Edited by Elizabeth Hallam
Preface by Hugh Trevor-Roper
Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, New York
ISBN: 1-55584- 240-2