An Age of Transition?

Economy and Society in England in the Later Middle Ages

Bibliographic Data

ID23778928
AuthorsChristopher Dyer (0000-0003-1651-5511, The Ford Lectures delivered in the University of Oxford in Hilary Term 2001, corresponding author)
Year2005
Publication date2005-02-03
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueAn age of transition? (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University PressOxford (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780198221661.001.0001
OpenAlexW4388335668
ISBN9780198221661
LanguageEN
Citations received48

This significant new work by a prominent medievalist focusses on the period of transition between 1250 and 1550, when the wealth and power of the great lords was threatened and weakened, and when new social groups emerged and new methods of production were adopted. Professor Dyer examines both the commercial growth of the thirteenth century, and the restructuring of farming, trade, and industry in the fifteenth. The subjects investigated include the balance between individuals and the collective interests of families and villages. The role of the aristocracy and in particular the gentry are scrutinized, and emphasis placed on the initiatives taken by peasants, traders, and craftsmen. The growth in consumption moved the economy in new directions after 1350, and this encouraged investment in productive enterprises. A commercial mentality persisted and grew, and producers, such as farmers, profited from the market. Many people lived on wages, but not enough of them to justify describing the sixteenth century economy as capitalist. The conclusions are supported by research in sources not much used before, such as wills, and non-written evidence, including buildings. Christopher Dyer, who has already published on many aspects of this period, has produced the first full-length study by a single author of the 'transition'. He argues for a reassessment of the whole period, and shows that many features of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries can be found before 1500.

Ancient history · Aristocracy (class) · Consumption (sociology) · Economic growth · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Fifteenth · Gentry · Investment (military) · Market economy · Period (music) · Political science · Politics · Poor relief · Poverty · Power (physics) · Prospectus · Restructuring · Social science · Sociology · Transition (genetics) · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law