The Wealth of Anglo-Saxon England, by Peter Sawyer

This short book has been a long time in the making. In 1965 Peter Sawyer published what is still a fundamental article on the wealth of England in the eleventh century. In it, he argued that the pre-Conquest kingdom was one of the richest parts of western Europe and that it was precisely this prosperity, based on the export of wool to the continent, that attracted raiders and conquerors, Danish and Norman, to its shores. In 1993 Sawyer directly returned to this theme in his Oxford Ford Lectures. Now, another twenty years on, we have a revised version of those lectures, taking into account some of the most important work done in the interim. Sawyer has remained true to many of the ideas he first laid out in 1965. This book is founded upon the notion of the great wealth of later Anglo-Saxon England, not only in the ability of its kings to extract surplus, but also in both absolute terms and relative to its near neighbours, especially Francia. Despite some criticisms over the years, Sawyer also holds firm to the idea that this wealth was down to the export trade, by the eleventh century primarily in wool. Indeed, he extends these ideas in the book, pushing them further back in time, interpreting the clusters of sceattas found in eastern England from the late-seventh and early-eighth centuries as evidence that wool, cloth and clothing was already being traded across the Channel in significant bulk.

Ancient history · Archaeology · Clothing · CONQUEST · Danish · Economic history · Eleventh · Political science · Prosperity · Classics · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy