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Merchants and Landowners’ Responses to Economic Ethics

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Economic Ethics in Late Medieval England, 1300–1500

Part of the book series: Archival Insights into the Evolution of Economics ((AIEE))

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Abstract

In Chapters 2, 3, and 4, I presented evidence which showed that ethical notions such as the just price, the common good, good lordship, justice and charity were disseminated, debated and problematised amongst medieval readers and listeners through a wide range of texts, such as pastoral manuals and guides to conscience, sermons and literary works. Chapter 5 showed that such notions reappeared in the framing of petitions and in economic regulation, and Chapter 6 looked at the evidence of landowner attitudes in manor court records and other sources. A question that remains is to what extent individuals were influenced by these notions in their understanding of economic ethics and applied them in their actual economic practices. In particular, were the more prosperous, whether merchants or landowners, influenced by the teachings of the Church concerning excess wealth and avarice? Were there, perhaps, other notions which were more influential in the way they managed their affairs? Were there circumstances in which these overrode the principles of economic ethics? Correspondence and other documents can reveal how economic ethics were perceived and applied in practice.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For full details, see the Bibliography. Christine Carpenter, “The Stonor Circle in the Fifteenth Century”(2005); E.M. Carus-Wilson “Evidence of Industrial Growth on Some Fifteenth-Century Manors” (1959); Alison Hanham, The Celys and Their World (1985); Elizabeth Noble, The World of the Stonors (2009); Colin Richmond’s three studies The Paston Family in the Fifteenth Century (1990, 1996, 2000) and his “The Pastons and London” (2000) and “Sir John Fastolf and the Land Market” (2002); Jonathan Rose, “Litigation and Political Conflict in Fifteenth-Century East Anglia”; Anthony Smith’s three studies of Fastolf “Litigation and Politics” (1984), “ ‘The Greatest Man of the Age’” (1995) and “ ‘My confessors exorted me gretely therto…’” (2001).

  2. 2.

    K.B. McFarlane, “The Investment of Sir John Fastolf’s Profits of War”, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th Series (1957): 100–101, 109.

  3. 3.

    McFarlane, “The Investment of Sir John Fastolf’s Profits”, 114.

  4. 4.

    S.J. Payling, “A Disputed Mortgage: Ralph, Lord Cromwell, Sir John Gra and the Manor of Multon Hall”, in Rulers and Ruled in Late Medieval England: Essays Presented to Gerald Harriss, ed. Rowena E. Archer and Simon Walker (London: Hambledon Press, 1995), 117.

  5. 5.

    Colin Richmond, “Religion”, in Fifteenth-Century Attitudes: Perceptions of Society in Late Medieval England, ed. Rosemary Horrox (Cambridge: CUP, 1994), 198.

  6. 6.

    Dyer, A Country Merchant, 1495-1520: Trading and Farming at the End of the Middle Ages (Oxford: OUP, 2012), 131.

  7. 7.

    The Stonor Letters and Papers 1290–1483, vol. 2, ed. C.L. Kingsford, (London: Royal Historical Society, 1919), 23, no. 181, Letter from Sir Richard Graystoke to William Stonor of 20 April (?1477).

  8. 8.

    Cely Letters, 5, no. 4, Letter from George Cely at Antwerp to Richard Cely the younger at Calais, 27 September 1476.

  9. 9.

    Cely Letters, 10, no. 10, Letter from John Spencer at London to George Cely at Calais, 5 November 1476.

  10. 10.

    Cely Letters, 28–29, no. 31, Letter from Richard Cely the elder at London to George Cely at Calais, 25 August 1478.

  11. 11.

    Cely Letters, 44, no. 47, Letter from Richard Cely the younger at London to George Cely at Calais, 9 April 1479.

  12. 12.

    Cely Letters, 3, no. 2, Letter from Richard Cely the elder at London to Robert Cely at Calais, 5 July 1474.

  13. 13.

    Cely Letters, 29, no. 32, Letter from Richard Cely the younger at Calais to George Cely at Bruges, ?27 August 1478. For a more extensive account of Robert’s behaviour, see Hanham, The Celys and Their World, 82–91.

  14. 14.

    Royster, J.F., “A Middle English Treatise on the Ten Commandments: Part 1: Text and Notes”, Studies in Philology 6 (1910):30; Vices and Virtues, 34–35.

  15. 15.

    Cely Letters, 11, no. 11, Letter from Richard Cely the elder at London to George Cely at Calais, 26 January 1476/7.

  16. 16.

    Cely Letters, 45, no. 48, Letter from Richard Cely the elder at London to George Cely at Calais, 15 April 1479. For further details concerning the association between Kesten and the Celys, see Hanham, The Celys and Their World, 91–103.

  17. 17.

    Cely Letters, 217, no. 219, Letter from Thomas Kesten at Calais to Richard and George Cely at London, 17 May [?1484].

  18. 18.

    Cely Letters, 217, no. 219, Letter from Thomas Kesten at Calais to Richard and George Cely at London, 17 May [?1484].

  19. 19.

    Armburgh Papers, 127–128, Robert Armburgh to William Armburgh, 1 March 1430.

  20. 20.

    General Prologue, in Riverside Chaucer, 28.

  21. 21.

    Armburgh Papers, 137, Robert Armburgh to Ralph Beauchamp, William Harpour and Richard Barbour, probably late 1432.

  22. 22.

    Armburgh Papers, 149, Robert Armburgh to William Harpour and Richard Barbour, probably late 1433 or early 1434.

  23. 23.

    Armburgh Papers, 112, Robert Armburgh to William Harpour and Richard Barbour, shortly before November 1429.

  24. 24.

    The preoccupation with shame and honour has been discussed more broadly by Philippa Maddern. See her “Honour among the Pastons: Gender and Integrity in Fifteenth-Century English Provincial Society”, Journal of Medieval History 14 (1988): 357–371.

  25. 25.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 350–351, no. 208, Letter from Margaret Paston to John Paston II of 28 October 1469. Davis originally gave the date as 1470, but this was later corrected (Paston Letters, vol. 3, xxviii).

  26. 26.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 360–362, no. 214, Letter from Margaret Paston to John Paston II of about 1472.

  27. 27.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 379, no. 227, Letter from Margaret Paston to John Paston II of 11 August 1477; Paston Letters, vol. 1, 477, no. 286, Letter from John Paston II to Margaret Paston mentioning the redemption of Sporle manor dated 20 November 1474.

  28. 28.

    Colin Richmond, The Paston Family in the Fifteenth Century: The First Phase(Cambridge: CUP, 1990), 177; Paston Letters, vol. 1, 154, no. 83, Letter from William Paston II to John Paston I of July 1454.

  29. 29.

    Paston Letters, vol. 2, 508, no. 869, Petition to Parliament by William Dallyng against William Paston I (draft).

  30. 30.

    See Paston Letters, vol. 2, 509–515.

  31. 31.

    For the June 1459 will, see Colin Richmond, “Once Again: Fastolf’s Will”, Essays in Later Medieval and Early Tudor England in Honour of Ralph A. Griffith, ed. Keith Dockray and Peter Fleming (Stroud: Nonsuch, 2005), 115–130.

  32. 32.

    Colin Richmond, “Landlord and Tenant: The Paston Evidence”, in Enterprise and Individuals in Fifteenth-Century England, ed. Jennifer Kermode (Stroud: Sutton, 1991), 31.

  33. 33.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 295, no. 180, Letter from Margaret Paston to John Paston I of 10 May 1465.

  34. 34.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 132–33, no. 73, Letter from John Paston I to Margaret Paston, John Daubeney and Richard Calle of 27 June 1465; vol. 1, 301–302, no. 182, Letter from Margaret Paston to John Paston I of 20 May 1465.

  35. 35.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 132–133, no. 73, Letter from John Paston I to Margaret Paston, John Daubeney and Richard Calle of 27 June 1465.

  36. 36.

    Paston Letters, vol. 2, 571, no. 903, Letter from William Cotyng to John Cook for Richard Calle of 9 January 1469.

  37. 37.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 38, no. 25, Letter from Agnes Paston to John Paston I of 16 November? 1452.

  38. 38.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 495, no. 299, Letter from John Paston II to Margaret Paston or John Paston III of 27 May 1476.

  39. 39.

    J. Rose, “Litigation and Political Conflict in Fifteenth-Century East Anglia; Conspiracy and Attaint Actions and Sir John Fastolf”, Journal of Legal History 27 (2006): 58–59.

  40. 40.

    Armburgh Papers, 143–44, Robert Armburgh to an unknown recipient, probably between 8 July and 6 October 1433.

  41. 41.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 526–527, no. 322, Letter from John Paston III to John Paston I of 2 June (probably 1464).

  42. 42.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 125–126, no. 71, Letter from John Paston I to Margaret Paston of 14 January 1465.

  43. 43.

    Oxford, Magdalen College, Fastolf Paper no. 98, Petition from Nicholas Bokkyng to Bishop Wayneflete.

  44. 44.

    Paston Letters, vol. 3, 103, no. 991, Letter from Sir John Fastolf to Howes, Bokkyng and Shipdam of 23 November 1450.

  45. 45.

    Paston Letters, vol. 3, 124–125, no. 1005, Letter from Sir John Fastolf to Thomas Howes and John Berney of 28 January 1451.

  46. 46.

    Paston Letters, vol. 3, 84, no. 981, Letter from Sir John Fastolf to Thomas Howes of 7 May 1450.

  47. 47.

    K.B. McFarlane, Nobility of Later Medieval England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973), 90.

  48. 48.

    McFarlane, Nobility, 261.

  49. 49.

    Magdalen College, Fastolf Paper no. 9.

  50. 50.

    Wendy Childs, “’To oure losse and hindraunce’: English Credit to Alien Merchants in the Mid-Fifteenth Century”, in Enterprise and Individuals, 71.

  51. 51.

    Sylvia Thrupp, “The Grocers of London, a Study of Distributive Trade”, in Studies in English Trade in the Fifteenth Century, ed. Eileen Power and M.M. Postan (1933, repr. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1966), 253.

  52. 52.

    Vanessa Harding, “The Crown, the City and the Orphans: The City of London and its Finances, 1400–1700”, in Urban Public Debts, Urban Government and the Market for Annuities in Western Europe (14th–18th Centuries), ed. Marc Boone, Karel Davids and Paul Janssens (Turnhout: Brepols, 2003), 58, 59; Sylvia Thrupp, The Merchant Class of Medieval London (1300–1500) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948), 107.

  53. 53.

    Caroline Barron, London in the Later Middle Ages: Government and People 1200–1500 (Oxford: OUP, 2004), 270.

  54. 54.

    J.W. Baldwin, “The Medieval Theories of the Just Price ; Romanists, Canonists and Theologians in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries”, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 49(1959): 22–27.

  55. 55.

    Adrian R. Bell, Chris Brooks and Tony K. Moore, “Interest in Medieval Accounts: Examples from England, 1272–1340”, History 94 (2009): 419.

  56. 56.

    Bell, Brooks and Moore, “Interest in Medieval Accounts”: 418, 422.

  57. 57.

    Bell, Brooks and Moore, “Interest in Medieval Accounts”: 416, 417.

  58. 58.

    Bell, Brooks and Moore, “Interest in Medieval Accounts”: 423.

  59. 59.

    Michael Prestwich, “Italian Merchants in Late Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Century England”’, in The Dawn of Modern Banking, ed. Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of California, Los Angeles (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 84–85, 87, 92.

  60. 60.

    Liber Albus: The White Book of the City of London, compiled A.D. 1419 by John Carpenter, Common Clerk [and] Richard Whitington, Mayor, trans. Henry Thomas Riley, London, Richard Griffin & Co., 1861, 318.

  61. 61.

    Liber Albus, 319, 344–345.

  62. 62.

    Calendar of Letter Books Preserved among the Archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall, Letter Book I , ed. R.R. Sharpe (London: Corporation of London, 1909), 211.

  63. 63.

    See “chevisance, n.”, Oxford English Dictionary, Online edition, Oxford, 2015, http://www.oed.com.

  64. 64.

    The Politics of Fifteenth Century England: John Vale’s Book, ed. M.L. Kekewich et al. (Stroud: Sutton for Richard III & Yorkist History Trust, 1995) 171.

  65. 65.

    Testamenta Ebor. IV, 23.

  66. 66.

    Paston Letters, vol. 2, 204, no. 604, Letter from William Worcester to John Paston I of 7 February 1460. It is not clear whether Worcester is referring to William Paston the elder, the father of John Paston I, or the latter’s brother William Paston the younger.

  67. 67.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 476, no. 285, Letter from John Paston II to Margaret Paston of a probable date of February 1470.

  68. 68.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 481, no. 288, Letter from John Paston II to John Paston III of 11 December 1474.

  69. 69.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 622–626, no. 387, Bill of complaint against William Paston II (draft), 1484.

  70. 70.

    Paston Letters, vol. 2, 379, no. 745, Letter from Thomas Daverse to John Paston II of 29 January 1467.

  71. 71.

    Paston Letters, vol. 2, 395, no. 759, Letter from Richard Calle to John Paston II of 22 May 1469.

  72. 72.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 279, no. 168, Letter from Margaret Paston to John Paston I of 7 January 1462.

  73. 73.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 333, no. 198, Letter from Margaret Paston to John Paston II of 29 October 1466.

  74. 74.

    John Mirk, Instructions for Parish Priests, ed. E. Peacock (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co for EETS, 1902), 23.

  75. 75.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 356–357, no. 210, Letter from Margaret Paston to John Paston II of 25 November 1466. The editor, Davis, originally gave the date as 1470, but this was later corrected (Paston Letters, vol. 3, xxviii).

  76. 76.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 406, no. 243, Letter from John Paston II to Margaret Paston of 15 September 1469.

  77. 77.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 346, no. 205, Letter from Margaret Paston to John Paston II of 22–30 September 1469.

  78. 78.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 350 –351, no. 208, Letter from Margaret Paston to John Paston II of 28 October 1469. The editor, Davis, originally gave the date as 1470, but this was later corrected (Paston Letters, vol. 3, xxviii).

  79. 79.

    Paston Letters, vol. 2, 145, no. 550, (Davis suggests a date of 1456); McFarlane, Nobility of Later Medieval England, 50.

  80. 80.

    Oxford, Magdalen College, MS Southwark 168, Letter from William Worcester, quoted by K.B. McFarlane, “A Business Partnership in War and Administration, 1421–1445”, English Historical Review, 78 (1963): 301.

  81. 81.

    McFarlane, Nobility, 223.

  82. 82.

    Paston Letters, vol. 2, 110, no. 514, 7 February 1455.

  83. 83.

    See A Middle English Treatise on the Ten Commandments, 30; Vices and Virtues, 34–35; Of Shrifte and Penance: The ME Prose Translation of ‘Le Manuel Des Peches’, ed. K. Bitterling (Heidelberg: Winter, 1998), 61; Jacob’s Well (Salisbury), fol. 198r; Handlyng Synne, 87.

  84. 84.

    Paston Letters, vol. 2, 101–102, no. 506, (Davis suggests a date of 1454).

  85. 85.

    Paston Letters, vol. 2, 204–205, no. 604, Letter from William Worcester to John Paston I, 7 February 1460.

  86. 86.

    Magdalen College, Fastolf Paper no. 98.

  87. 87.

    Magdalen College, Fastolf Paper no. 98.

  88. 88.

    Paston Letters, vol. 3, 85, no. 981, Letter from Sir John Fastolf to Thomas Howes of 7 May 1450.

  89. 89.

    Paston Letters, vol. 3, 87–88, no. 983, Letter from Sir John Fastolf to Thomas Howes of 8 August 1450.

  90. 90.

    Paston Letters, vol. 3, 134, no. 1009: Letter from Sir John Fastolf to Thomas Howes of 24 June 1451.

  91. 91.

    Richmond, The Paston Family in the Fifteenth Century: The First Phase, 235–236, 237–238, 239.

  92. 92.

    Paston Letters, vol. 3, 111–112, no. 996, Letter from Sir John Fastolf to Thomas Howes, 20 December 1450.

  93. 93.

    Paston Letters, vol. 3, 124, no. 1005, Letter from Sir John Fastolf to Thomas Howes and John Berney of 28 January 1451.

  94. 94.

    Paston Letters, vol. 3, 132, no. 1009, Letter from Sir John Fastolf to Thomas Howes of 24 June 1451.

  95. 95.

    Paston Letters, vol. 3, 101, no. 990, Letter from Sir John Fastolf to Thomas Howes of 11 November 1450.

  96. 96.

    Paston Letters, vol. 3, 86, no. 982, Letter from Sir John Fastolf to Thomas Howes, 27 May 1450.

  97. 97.

    McFarlane, Nobility, 48.

  98. 98.

    Paston Letters, vol. 2, 137, no. 543, 1 March 1456.

  99. 99.

    Paston Letters, vol. 2, 170, no. 571, Letter from William Worcester to John Paston I of 20 April 1457.

  100. 100.

    Magdalen College, Fastolf Paper no. 98.

  101. 101.

    Magdalen College, Fastolf Paper no. 98.

  102. 102.

    Colin Richmond, “Sir John Fastolf, the Duke of Suffolk and the Pastons”, in Rule, Redemption and Representations in Late Medieval England, ed. Linda Clark (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2008), 74–77.

  103. 103.

    Richmond, “Sir John Fastolf, the Duke of Suffolk and the Pastons”, 74–77.

  104. 104.

    Richmond, “Once Again: Fastolf’s Will”, 124.

  105. 105.

    Richmond, “Once Again: Fastolf’s Will”, 124.

  106. 106.

    Richmond, “Once Again: Fastolf’s Will”, 127.

  107. 107.

    Richmond, “Once Again: Fastolf’s Will”, 127.

  108. 108.

    Richmond, “Once Again: Fastolf’s Will”, 128.

  109. 109.

    Richmond, “Once Again: Fastolf’s Will”, 129–130.

  110. 110.

    M. Deanesly, “Vernacular Books in England in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries”, Modern Language Review, 15 (1920): 353.

  111. 111.

    Paston Letters, vol. 1, 516–518.

  112. 112.

    R. Beadle, “Sir John Fastolf’s French Books”, in Medieval Texts in Context, ed. Graham D. Caie and Denis Renevey (Abingdon: Taylor & Francis, 2008), 97, 104, 105, 107.

  113. 113.

    J. Hughes, “Stephen Scrope and the Circle of Sir John Fastolf: Moral and Intellectual Outlooks”, in Medieval Knighthood IV: Papers from the Strawberry Hill Conference 1990, ed. Christopher Harper-Bill and Ruth Harvey (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1992), 131, 132.

  114. 114.

    Hughes, “Stephen Scrope and the Circle of Sir John Fastolf”, 134.

  115. 115.

    Jacob’s Well (Brandeis), 136–137.

  116. 116.

    Pamela Nightingale, “Money and Credit in the Economy of Late Medieval England”, in Medieval Money Matters, ed. Diana Wood (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2004), 53; J.L. Bolton, Money in the Medieval English Economy: 973-1489 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012), 232–240.

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    Jennifer Hole

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Hole, J. (2016). Merchants and Landowners’ Responses to Economic Ethics. In: Economic Ethics in Late Medieval England, 1300–1500. Archival Insights into the Evolution of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38860-1_7

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