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Markets before economic growth: the grain market of medieval England

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  • Gregory Clark

    (University of California-Davis, CA, USA)

Abstract

England from 1200 to 1600 was a society caught in apparent technological stasis, typical of the pre-industrial world. Many believe this pre-industrial stagnation was the result of political and cultural constraints, such as those on the operation of markets. Indeed medieval English law outlawed many arbitrage activities in markets. The paper shows using information of grain yields and prices at 227 different locations that the most important of all markets, that for grain, was nevertheless both extensive and relatively efficient as early as 1209. Whatever the rhetoric of medieval law and social thought the real effect of constraints on the operation the grain market seems to have been minimal. England had an elaborate market economy at least 500 years before it had sustained economic growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Gregory Clark, 2015. "Markets before economic growth: the grain market of medieval England," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 9(3), pages 265-287, september.
    • Handle: RePEc:afc:cliome:v:9:y:2015:i:3:p:265-287
    DOI: 10.1007/s11698-014-0117-7
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Claude Diebolt & Michael Haupert, 2020. "How Cliometrics has Infiltrated Economics – and Helped to Improve the Discipline," Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Torino (Italy), vol. 54(1), pages 219-230, June.
    2. Vincent Delabastita & Sebastiaan Maes, 2020. "The Feudal Origins of Manorial Prosperity in 11th-century England," Working Papers 0190, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    3. Liam Brunt & Edmund Cannon, 2022. "English farmers’ wheat storage and sales in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(3), pages 932-959, August.
    4. García-Hiernaux, Alfredo & Guerrero, David E. & McAleer, Michael, 2016. "Market integration dynamics and asymptotic price convergence in distribution," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 52(PB), pages 913-925.
    5. Madsen, Jakob B. & Robertson, Peter E. & Ye, Longfeng, 2024. "Lives versus livelihoods in the middle ages: The impact of the plague on trade over 400 years," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    6. Stef Espeel, 2024. "Driven by crises: Price integration on the grain market in late medieval Flanders," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(3), pages 849-872, August.
    7. Claridge, Jordan & Delabastita, Vincent & Gibbs, Spike, 2023. "Wages and labour relations in the Middle Ages: it's not (all) about the money," Economic History Working Papers 120307, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    8. Georg D. Blind & Raji Steineck, 2021. "The missing piece in E. Cassirer’s theory of symbolic forms: the economy," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 291-315, April.
    9. Julia Wardley-Kershaw & Klaus R. Schenk-Hoppé, 2022. "Economic Growth in the UK: The Inception," World, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-13, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pre-industrial markets; Market efficiency; Market institutions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N23 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N73 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • Q11 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis; Prices

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