Paul R. Dryburgh

‘Leger est aprendre mes fort est arendre’: wool, debt, and the dispersal of Pipewell Abbey (1280-1330)

It has long been known that English Cistercian monasteries often sold their wool in advance to foreign merchants in the late thirteenth century. The abbey of Pipewell in Northamptonshire features in a number of such contracts with Cahorsin merchants. This paper looks again at these contracts in the context of over 200 other such agreements found in the governmental records. Why did Pipewell descend into penury over this fifty year period? This case study demonstrates that the promise of ready cash for their most valuable commodity led such abbots to make ambitious agreements – taking on yet more debt to service existing creditors – that would lead to their eventual bankruptcy.

Roger Mortimer and the Governance of Ireland, 1317–1320

On Thursday in Easter week 1317 an army numbering perhaps 1000 English war veterans landed at Youghal (co. Cork). Captained by Roger Mortimer, lieutenant of Edward II, this force came as a belated injection of military manpower into Ireland at a moment of acute crisis. Shortly before Mortimer’s landing, Robert Bruce had penetrated deep into Munster, hoping to provoke a rising amongst the native Irish to give effect to the inauguration two years previously of his brother, Edward, as ‘king of Ireland’. However, having misread the extent to which he could expect unity within the native community, Bruce was unable to liaise with Donnchad Briain, the sympathetic leader of the Irish of Thomond, and was instead faced by Muirchertach, Donnchad’s brother and rival. Meanwhile, local levies marshalled by the justiciar, Edmund Butler, Mortimer’s deputy, harried the Scots to their rear. Campaigning far from home, frustrated by native reticence or outright hostility, and locked in a stalemate with the justiciar, the prospect of tackling Mortimer held little appeal. His ranks depleted by exhaustion and famine, King Robert retired to Scotland via Ulster, leaving Edward to fight for his kingship alone.1

Advance Contracts for the Sale of Wool in Medieval England: An Undeveloped and Inefficient Market?

While it is commonly believed that derivative instruments are a recent invention, we document the existence of forward contracts for the sale of wool in medieval England around 700 years ago. The contracts were generally entered into by English monasteries, who frequently sold their wool for up to twenty years in advance to mostly foreign and particularly Italian merchants. Employing a unique source of data collected by hand from the historical records, we determine the interest rates implied in these transactions and we also examine the efficiency of the forward and spot markets. The calculated interest rates average around 20%, in accordance with available information concerning the interest rates used in other types of transactions at that time. Perhaps surprisingly, we also find little evidence of informational inefficiencies in these markets.