Overseas Trade of Boston in the Reign of Richard II

In the fourteenth century, Boston was not only the outport for the major city of Lincoln, but one of the largest and wealthiest English towns in its own right; but because the townsmen of medieval Boston lacked formal powers of self-government there is no local borough archive for the period before its incorporation in 1545. The port's particular and enrolled custom accounts are therefore one of the main sources for the history of medieval Boston, but very few have yet appeared in print; they offer a fascinating snapshot of trade at the time (from Gascony to the Baltic and Scandinavia), together with insights into the work of the controllor, and the activities of merchants. This volume provides an English calendar of all of the surviving accounts of the port's customs and subsidy collectors from Richard II's reign (an especially important period when trade flourished), along with the surviving counter-rolls compiled by the controllers. In addition, it gives translations of a number of other documents preserved in the National Archives relating to Boston during this period, offering information on the crown's regulation of overseas trade and the workings of the port's customs administration. Dr S. H. RIGBY teaches in the Department of History at the University of Manchester.