Textiles and the Medieval Economy
eBook - ePub

Textiles and the Medieval Economy

Production, Trade, and Consumption of Textiles, 8th–16th Centuries

Angela Ling Huang, Carsten Jahnke, Carsten Jahnke

Share book
  1. 232 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Textiles and the Medieval Economy

Production, Trade, and Consumption of Textiles, 8th–16th Centuries

Angela Ling Huang, Carsten Jahnke, Carsten Jahnke

Book details
Book preview
Table of contents
Citations

About This Book

Archaeologists and textile historians bring together 16 papers to investigate the production, trade and consumption of textiles in Scandinavia and across parts of northern and Mediterranean Europe throughout the medieval period. Archaeological evidence is used to demonstrate the existence or otherwise of international trade and to examine the physical characteristics of textiles and their distribution in order to understand who was producing, using and trading them and what they were being used for. Historical evidence, mainly textual, is employed to link textile names to places, numbers and prices and thus provide an appreciation of changing economics, patterns of distribution and the organisation of trade. Different types and qualities of cloths are discussed and the social implications of their production and import/export considered against a developing background of urbanism and increasing commercial wealth.

Frequently asked questions

How do I cancel my subscription?
Simply head over to the account section in settings and click on “Cancel Subscription” - it’s as simple as that. After you cancel, your membership will stay active for the remainder of the time you’ve paid for. Learn more here.
Can/how do I download books?
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
What is the difference between the pricing plans?
Both plans give you full access to the library and all of Perlego’s features. The only differences are the price and subscription period: With the annual plan you’ll save around 30% compared to 12 months on the monthly plan.
What is Perlego?
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Do you support text-to-speech?
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Is Textiles and the Medieval Economy an online PDF/ePUB?
Yes, you can access Textiles and the Medieval Economy by Angela Ling Huang, Carsten Jahnke, Carsten Jahnke in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Tecnologia e ingegneria & Scienza dei materiali. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
Oxbow Books
Year
2014
ISBN
9781782976486

1. Introduction. Conference: ‘Textiles and Economy in the Middle Ages’, Copenhagen, 19–21 April, 2012

Carsten Jahnke

Introduction1

Clothes make the man. For the Middle Ages, no proverb rings more true. Cloth was not only a basic commodity at the time; it was also a marker of wealth and status. When the Lubeckian chronicler Arnold derided the Danes at the beginning of the 13th century, he did so by describing their attire:
On the honour of the Danes. The Danes who imitate the habits of the Germans, with whom they are familiar because they have lived in their neighbourhood for so long, are now adopting the dress and weapons of other nations. Previously, they dressed like seamen because they lived by the coast and were always preoccupied with ships, but now they clothe themselves not only in scarlet, particoloured and grey furs, but also in purple and fine linens. The reason for this is that they have all become very rich due to the fishing that takes place every year around Scania. While this fishing is taking place, merchants arrive from all of the surrounding nations with gold, silver, and other treasures to buy herring from the Danes. They catch the herring that at no cost to themselves, by the abundant grace of God, while the merchants offer the best they have in order to secure a good bargain – and sometimes even lose their lives in shipwrecks.2
There were differences not only in the style of tailoring, but also in raw materials (wool or linen), colour, types of weave, and certainly in the quality of the cloth. We can assume that the cloth that Arnold mentions was homespun grey woollen cloth, in contrast to the imported, red and dark-coloured woollen and linen cloths. This example shows that from as early as the 13th century, textiles and trade were interconnected in an almost inseparable manner, and that the Lubeckian herring trade not only made the Danes rich – Lubeckian merchants also sold cloth to the Danes and made a fortune by doing so.
However, the medieval reality was certainly not as simple as it may appear based on this example, and neither is the research on this subject. Although most historians and archaeologists agree that textile production, trade, and consumption were some of the most important phenomena in the Middle Ages and beyond, textiles “have been at the forefront of industrial progress at least twice in the last thousand years,”3 as this industry was central to economic development in Europe. Despite the widely-recognised importance of textiles as a commodity, a social marker, or a repository of wealth, the subject has been rather sparsely researched. Historians have mainly investigated textile terminology (names and related characteristics described in textual evidence) and have tended to focus their interests on a few outstanding examples, such as the Flemish and later Dutch and English production of woollen cloth. Archaeologists mostly remain within their field of expertise, focusing on physical characteristics (especially in terms of yarn and weave types, and colour/dyes) and use (by whom and for what, as evidenced by surviving items of clothing in particular). Thus, although a great deal of literature exists on this topic in comparison to other commodities in medieval trade, much of it is biased, and textiles as part of the medieval economy of Europe remains unexplored for the most part – not to mention the fact that historians and archaeologists often live within their own worlds and science communities, and both groups use their own terminology and nomenclature, which can vary greatly between disciplines. On the basis of this, it is evident that there is a need for an extensive exchange of ideas and knowledge, not only between disciplines and generations, different groups of established and younger researchers, but also between regions and different time periods. And so, in April 2012, Angela Huang from the SAXO-Institute and the author, with the generous assistance of the Centre for Textile Research of Copenhagen University (CTR), organised a three-day conference in Copenhagen, bringing together not only historians and archaeologists, but also established researchers and PhD students from a variety of European countries. This project was sponsored by the SAXO-institute and the CTR at Copenhagen University. It also received generous funding from the Danish Research Council, the Lillian og Dan Finks Fond and the Foundation of Her Majesty the Queen and the Prince consort, to which the entire research project is deeply indebted.
What, then, did we learn from three days of intensive debate and exchange of ideas? In general, it became clear that there is a long way to go with regards to establishing a lasting cooperation between archaeology and history as two fields with different and distinct research traditions. For example, issues related to technology illustrated how self-contained both fields are, making it almost impossible for researchers from the two fields to use each others’ results. This conference helped to create a platform upon which a dialogue could be started. Going forwards, this will hopefully provide textile research with a better foundation from which to tackle the many issues that still need to be addressed. More specifically, it became apparent that the impressions provided by textual evidence and our assumptions about the stage of industrial development of an area do not necessarily harmonise with the available archaeological data. The archaeological research that was presented at the conference taught us the value of small finds, which can reveal the technical aspects of production and the quality of fabrics in a way other sources cannot. We should not only examine at the known textile fragments from excavations and make assumptions about import trade and trade routes on the basis of these; we must also take into consideration the more unspectacular findings – spindle whorls, loom weights and needles – as these document the weaving process.
By analysing the technical possibilities of these items based on their weight and construction, Eva Andersson-Strand has been able to provide a more exact interpretation of the Viking-age textile finds from Hedeby, Birka, and Löddeköpinge. Her results show that the manors and Viking towns of Scandinavia were able to produce high quality cloth. As a result, many theories about trade and trade routes in Europe at that time must be re-analysed. There is also a second important point to make with regards to this. Cloth in the Viking age was standardised and had to be so in order to be functional. Using the example of the production of sail-cloth, Eva Anderson Strand shows the impact of production methods on the production process. The same kind of standardisation and industrial production is also shown in the work of MichĂšle Hayeur Smith, who uses the example of Iceland. Icelanders produced not only a currency made of cloth (the vaĂ°mĂĄl) they also changed the patterns and widths that they produced according to demand in Britain and on the continent. In the period between 874 and the 17th century, cloth production in Iceland was rapidly standardised and remained highly productive, and was more important for the island’s economy than the export of dried fish, for example.
Similarly, Ingvil Øye analyses textile production between 800 and 1300 AD in the central part of Norway – the counties of Hordaland, Sogn, and Fjordane at the Sognefjord. By examining tools, textiles, and environments, she draws a multifaceted picture of rural textile-production in the Middle Ages, with the production of both exclusive and everyday textiles. And, once again, her research points in the same direction as Eva Strand’s: the very high quality textiles found in Viking Age burials in Western Norway may have been produced locally. The same question is explored by Gale R. Owen-Crocker, who takes as her starting point a school-book text written by Ælfric in around 1000, which states that purpurum et sericum, pretiosas gemmas et aurum, uarias uestes et pigmenta are some main items traded by merchants at that time. By analysing various findings, she also concludes that some textiles arrived in Anglo-Saxon England as imports, but that most utilitarian cloth and some higher quality materials were probably manufactured locally. This also applies to some unusual woollen and linen textiles, which may have been produced in the British islands.
These four papers show that spinners and weavers in towns in the North, as well as those in the countryside, were able to produce yarn and cloth of high quality. These results shift our attention from prominently distant production centres and import trade to a local textile production, which went beyond the needs of the individual household or manor. When the technical aspects of yarn and textile production are taken into consideration, many beloved old theories must be re-interpreted in favour of a more balanced understanding of the distribution of textile production and trade at the time
Although we have been forced to re-evaluate the development and importance of commercial textile production in Northern Europe in this way, the fact remains that some fabrics, such as silk (which is usually considered to be a luxury textile), had to be imported. Two papers have been dedicated to the silk trade and silk consumption in the Viking Age: Marianne Vedeler traces the pathways of silk in Scandinavia. She shows that the silk imported to the North came both from Central Asia and Byzantine. Thus, she states that silk trade and exchange of fashion ideas between the main areas of production make it even more plausible that more than one trade route was used. Silk, like many other trade items in the Middle Ages, was part of a complex and multidimensional system in which merchandise and gifts changed hands. But how valuable was silk then and in later periods? This question is the main point dealt with by Gitte Hansen. By analysing the silk embroideries on leather shoes from the 11th–13th centuries, which were found in Bergen/Norway, she has shown that silk yarn was not as expensive as one may imagine. Townspeople in Bergen were able to afford silk embroideries on their shoes when these were en vogue. This indicates that the use of silk was a matter of fashion sense more than a question of social status. Silk embroideries were a luxury that was available to everyone.
When dealing with archaeological data on the textile trade, a central issue is their actual informative value. Of course, lead seals testify to the existence of a trade with textiles. However, beyond this, archaeological methods quickly reach their limitations and are mainly able to suggest where a cloth was produced and how it arrived at the site of consumption. In recent years, however, new methods have been developed from which archaeological (and historical) studies of the textile trade in particular will greatly benefit: Archeometry has been shown to provide firm evidence of the long-distance movements of textile materials. This technique has enormous future potential, but is still in its infancy. Other archaeological papers tend to discuss the movement of textiles based on stylistic factors, the range of (mainly) woollen fabrics found in a locality, or calculations of textiles relative to population densities and other metrics. The preliminary findings of the archeometry seem to call some of these techniques into question.4
Archaeological papers show not only that production and trade were interwoven with each other, supplying medieval customers with a variety of fabrics and qualities, they also point towards a complex and multidimensional distribution system, which connected the different parts of Europe with each other and also linked Europe and Asia. In this respect, is it questionable whether only the most valuable textiles were items of trade, or whether there was also a trade in mediocre textiles. This is one of the focal points of Heidi Sherman’s analysis of Novgorodian flax and linen production in the Middle Ages. By bridging the gap between archaeology and history, she is able to draw a long historical line from the 14th to the 16th century, and also to correct and reclassify certain archaeological and historical misinterpretations. Furthermore, she reminds us that everyday goods such as flax and linen were much more important in everyday life than more spectacular and attractive goods, such as fur and gold.
A paper by the late John Munro, who analysed the development of the Florentine production of woollen cloth from 1320 up to 1420, shares this perspective. By considering many internal and external factors – such as the plague and the crisis of the 14th century, rising taxes in England as a result of the one hundred years war, or the development in transaction-costs of international trade – he traces the development of the Florentine Arte di Calimala and Arte della Lana textile production from their beginnings through their peak in the early 14th century to the cessation of production of English wool textiles at the start of the 15th century. In doing so, John Munro is able to link the economy of Northern Europe to that of the Mediterranean in a new way. Similarly, Kilian Baur outlines a connection between south and north in a paper which analyses the trade of fustian (barchent in Low German; a mixture of linen and cotton) from Swabia to Denmark and the Baltic. For the first time, he shows that this special type of cloth from the Fustian district in Swabia was traded far up into the north for use in servants clothing via the central markets in Upper-Germany. Whereas the Italian and Southern German production centres for woollen cloth and fustian are well-known suppliers of textiles for long distance trade, the Hanseatic textile trade does not usually include trade in textiles from the Hanseatic area. In the fustian trade that Kilian Baur describes, Hanseatic merchants are describes as brokers between producers and consumers. However, Rudolf Holbach also shows that the Hanseatic area was a large-scale producer and exporter of woollen cloth. Contrary to the earlier understanding of the Hanseatic area as unproductive, Holback portrays the Hanseatic region as a producer that should not be underestimated. His article places centres such as Lubeck, Thuringia, the Rhineland, the Netherlands, and Prussia on the map of woollen-cloth production areas. Furthermore, Jerzy Maik completes the picture by describing cloth production in the East; specifically, in the kingdom of Poland – from Silesia in the west to Prussia in the east. By analysing archaeological material in a new way, he shows that from the end of the 11th century onwards, cloth production developed in the cities of the Polish kingdom due to the use of highly efficient, modern foot-operated treadle looms. In a similar vein, Angela Huang analyses Hanseatic linen production – an area of textile crafts that has only been sparsely researched by historians, and which has been omitted entirely by archaeologists, since flax fibres do not usually survive at archaeological sites. By analysing the English custom roles, she is able to show both the importance of Hanseatic linen for the English market and the developments and shifts in its production and production areas.
These articles, which focus on production centres that have previously received little attention, show that the medieval textile trade was by no means trade characterised by a high price level. Central European textile production also supplied both expensive textiles, or price-makers, and generic textiles, or price-takers, for late medieval long-distance trade. The development of a standardised production by means of guild statutes and quality assessment contributed to the widening of the range of trade products available throughout the Middle Ages. These articles provide important amendments to the map of textile production areas in the Middle Ages. In addition to the known production centres in north-western Europe, southern Germany and Italy, we must now include the textile areas in northern Germany, Poland and Prussia. However, this picture is still by no means complete. Nevertheless, it does serve to emphasise our lack of knowledge about the geographical distribution and variety of commercial textile production in the Middle Ages, both with regards to fabrics and to variations in quality.
However, production and trade are only two aspects of textiles and their role in the medieval economy. Since textiles were not traded as clothing or directly sold to their final consumer, and because even sources about noble textile consumption scarce, we tend to lose sight of the consumer when investigating the textile trade. But these questions remain: How did the consumer became interested in and supplied with the vast range of textiles produced for trade? How did the Danes become interested in foreign cloth and how did they come to perceive this cloth as higher status than their own? And where did they acquire the newest fashions? These questions are at the centre of the last three papers described in this section. Thomas Ertl and Michael Rothmann analyse the noble consumption of fine cloth at the Frankfurt fairs. Using the example of the Landgraves of Hesse and the Counts of Ysenburg via an analysis of their accounting records, they illuminate the noble consumption of textiles in the late Middle Ages. Furthermore, by examining the fashion drawings used by tailors at the time, they illustrate how consumption was stimulated at that time. This article sheds light on one of the available sources regarding pre-modern consumption; that is, household accounts. This could be supplemented by merchants’ accounting books and testaments which, if employed in similar studies, may greatly contribute to our knowledge about medieval textile consumption.
The stimulation of consumption and supply chains are also the focal points of Stuart Jenks’ theoretical considerations. He introduces the idea that there was a revolution of distribution in the 15th century at the latest, and that this paved the way for all of the subsequent economical ‘revolutions’ in the 16th and 17th centuries. Using the example of the late-medieval pepper trade, he shows how new economical items followed the proven paths of marked trade, something which has important implications for the textile trade, as well as for other innovations of trade and consumption in later periods.
Both the conference and the articles outlined here illustrate how archaeologists and historians cover the same ground, even though they look at it from different angles. However, it is also clear that some points still require further and deeper analysis. First, new knowledge can be generated and old misinterpretations can be illuminated when the material, methods and terminology of archaeology and economic history, and of German, Scandinavian and Anglophone researchers are checked against each other. We must be critical and ask ourselves the following question: What do national or academic traditions justly or unjustly take for granted when discussing textiles, their appearance, value, and purpose? Secondly, as a consequence of the new results presented in this volume, we must question many dearly-held ideas about textile production and trade, and re-examine the material carefully. Which kinds of textiles with which characteristics were actually produced? Which factors influenced production – shifts in the use and availability of raw materials or weaving techniques, technological innovations such as the replacement of the vertical warp-weighted loom with the horizontal loom? Is taste also a relevant issue? And if so, to what extent? In order to answer these questions, new materials and methods must employed, as illustrated by the articles compiled in this volume. Thirdly, we must fill the gaps in the chronology of the development of textile production and trade. We must also fill the remaining holes on our maps of European production centres and in our knowledge about the nature of medieval textiles. We must take into consideration the individual production sites and their products over time, the tools and raw materials used, as well as the social and legal frameworks for production. We must also link production and consumption – from the seller via the wholesaler to the retailer and the final consumer – as all of these shape textiles as a ...

Table of contents