Medieval Clothmaking in late 14th and Early 15th Century England

              The clothmaking industry had a profound impact not only late Medieval economics, but also on how both religious and lay people identified one another amongst their respective ranks. At the onset of the 13^th century, the clothmaking industry was rather small. In fact, most people made clothes for themselves and only the truly wealthy and the nobility were purchasing clothing or garments. However, as technology began to advance, urban centers became hubs for clothmaking and production began to increase dramatically. Eventually, rural communities began bolstering the urban clothmaking efforts, and clothmaking towns began to spring up across Medieval England.

                                                 An example of the dyeing process during this time

              These rural cloth production centers are incredibly interesting, and the resulting boom and eventual bust of the clothmaking market can perhaps be attributed to their entrance into the industry. These towns gave the rent-paying low class of the time access to money, as wages were generally decent for men. Women and boys stood to benefit the most from these unregulated, small production centers. Since clothmaking guilds in urban centers barred women and children from entry, women and children were able to work in these rural clothmaking communities for wages that were excellent compared to what they could make elsewhere.

               As cloth production rose, supply naturally increased. This spike in supply was met by a parallel spike in demand – since more lower-class people were earning decent wages (it is estimated that by the 15^th century, almost a quarter of men made their living from clothmaking in England), they wanted to get in on buying clothes. In fact, in the early 15^th century almost 100% (roughly 98%, to be exact) of cloths made were sold domestically. This phenomenon, coupled with large war orders of cloth at the time, led to an incredibly prosperous clothmaking industry into the 15^th century. The beginning and middle of the 15^th century saw the clothmaking industry continue to ascend, as exports rose to 40% and prices, wages, and rents all rose. However, by 1460 cloth prices fell to 50% of their 1440 highs, and a depression ensued.

               The rise and fall of the clothmaking industry at this time shares more parallels than meets the eye to the Great Depression the United States faced in the early 20^th century. Consumers at that time were too invested into the market and were buying things they could not afford (that they were manufacturing in their factory jobs), creating an unsustainable, self-reinforcing supply and demand boom. Lowborn clothmakers in Medieval England were also producing a huge amount of a good and used their wages to purchase that very good. While the Great Depression was obviously a much more complex economic phenomenon, it is interesting to see it share a parallel with a Medieval economic disaster. Despite that the clothmaking market saw a brief depression, on the whole it rebounded and became extremely lucrative for England in the ensuing centuries.

               With an abundance of clothes flooding the consumer market, people of the time needed to find a way to organize themselves by social order using clothes. Sumptuary laws were enacted to curtail “sinful” lavish dressing and also to keep lowborn laypeople from wearing certain clothes or garments. It became quite an issue. In fact, there were Medieval “parenting” books which urged parents to dress their children conservatively and according to their social order. The secular clergy also regulated what clergymen at the time could wear to established a type of “uniform,” free of bright colors, jewels, and short-cut cloaks.