Towns and Trade

Abstract

Mid-sixteenth century England boasted only one city to compare with the major urban centres of Germany or the Low Countries. In 1550 London had about 120,000 inhabitants, having doubled in size over the previous half century. It did not compare in either wealth or international prestige with Antwerp or Augsburg, but was nevertheless a sophisticated and rapidly developing financial centre some years before the foundation of the Royal Exchange.¹ The Merchant Adventurers of London dominated England’s overseas trade, particularly in the main export commodity, broadcloth, and led the struggle against alien control, which had excluded English merchants from many markets over the previous 150 years. Observers from Italy, and other countries accustomed to urban development, noted a handful of other towns which they were prepared to acknowledge; Norwich, with about 12,000 inhabitants; York and Bristol only a little smaller; Newcastle, Exeter, Salisbury and Coventry with between 5,000 and 10,000. Less discriminating English commentators were prepared to designate about 50 other places in the same way, although not always for the same reasons.