"A land full of drink and drinkers": aspects of the wine trade in late twelfth- and early thirteenth-century England

Abstract

English wine trade in late twelfth-and early thirteenth- century is not thoroughly examined by the scholars of the economic history of medieval Europe. This period witnessed an increase in the commerce of wine between England and France. Troubles on the continental possessions of England somehow affected the course of the wine trade, but never decreased the flow of wine fleets through the Channel. The government of King John paid a particular attention to this voluminous trade and tried to control it. Regulations and also privileges aiming to increase the volume of the wine trade and, hence the revenues from this commerce were imposed on wine merchants. These operations caused an increase in the trade and in the consumption of this valuable commodity of the Middle Ages in England.