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IMC 2013: Sessions

Session 229: Continuity and Change in the Late Medieval English Town, I: Beyond 'Urban Decline'

Monday 1 July 2013, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Department of History, Durham University
Organiser:Dana Durkee, Department of History, Durham University
Moderator/Chair:Christian Liddy, Department of History, Durham University
Paper 229-aA North-South Divide: Regional Responses to Recession in 15th-Century England
(Language: English)
Richard M. Goddard, Department of History, University of Nottingham
Index terms: Economics - Trade, Economics - Urban
Paper 229-bCoventry: A Case Study Reassessing the Narrative of Late Medieval Crisis and Decline
(Language: English)
Donald Leech, Department of History & Philosophy, University of Virginia
Index terms: Economics - Trade, Economics - Urban
Paper 229-cThe Merchant Class of Late Medieval Norwich
(Language: English)
Dana Durkee, Department of History, Durham University
Index terms: Economics - Trade, Economics - Urban, Social History
Abstract

Over the last thirty years interest in the socio-economic and political fortunes of late medieval English towns has been dominated by notions of 'urban decline' and 'urban oligarchy'. These debates have stalled. Yet, while historians have sometimes questioned their relevance, discussion of urban society and economy and urban politics and government in the late Middle Ages seems to be impossible without reference to these concepts. This session considers the nuanced problems and transformations specific to the developing economies of English towns in the 15th century.