Trade and Shipping in the Medieval West

Portugal, Castile and England

by Wendy Rosemary Childs

Book cover: Trade and Shipping in the Medieval West

Extent: 187 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Medieval Studies

Series: Textes et Etudes du Moyen Age

Series volume number: 70

Language: English

Paperback (Out of print)

(July 2014)

ISBN: 9782503551289

6.46 x 9.41 inches

Price: $45.00

Out of stock

This book offers a survey of European travellers and includes a discussion of the economic developments that encouraged trade and travel, with focus on general Iberian connections to northern Europe


Europe contained a highly mobile society in the later Middle Ages, in which merchants and seamen, nobles, diplomats and soldiers, churchmen and pilgrims travelled frequently, often long distances, and returned home to disseminate information about places they had seen and peoples they had met. Villagers who might not travel far from home could nonetheless hear tales from well-travelled servants of local lords, pilgrims and soldiers, mendicants and other churchmen, merchants and seamen. Trade was a major driver of geographical mobility; of the travelling groups merchants and seamen were among the most frequent and regular travellers, and they brought with them not only goods, but people, news, and information. Iberia and England were integral parts of the European commercial network, and Portuguese, Castilian, Basque, and English merchants and seamen travelled widely and regularly. This book begins with a survey of European travellers (who travelled, why, where, and what sources they left behind), and includes a discussion of the economic developments that encouraged trade and travel. It then focusses on general Iberian connections to northern Europe, which pre-dated the early voyages of discovery and continued during them, before concentrating on Portuguese trade with the north, especially with England.

  • By (author) Wendy Rosemary Childs

"These lectures provide a clear and highly readable short survey of the patterns of trade between late medieval England and Iberia, illustrated by trade figures drawn from the English customs accounts to show the changing patterns of trade and shipping over three centuries, as well as by lively portraits of travelers, merchants, and shippers involved in connecting these two regions." --Maryanne Kowaleski, Fordham University, The Medieval Review, 16.11.13