THE ESSEX WOOL TRADE.
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others also entered into the trade at this time, but, in the existing
lists of monasteries selling wool to foreign merchants, only the
following monasteries are assigned to Essex, viz., Coggeshall,
Maldon, Colchester and Tilty to the west, whilst two or three
others appear in the lower Lea Valley beyond the area under
review.2 The repetition in each list of these three monasteries
suggests the strong possibility that these were the only founda-
tions in which wool was of importance at this time. Admittedly
certain Orders of monasteries have been known to evade taxation
and were therefore not mentioned in woollen lists because they
sent their wool to Rome as "gifts." However, since the
"woollen" monasteries of Essex were not confined to one Order
we may assume that the remaining Essex monasteries did not
take part in the trade.
It will be seen from Figure 1 that the position of these monas-
teries in eastern Essex bears little or no relation to the sheep-
rearing parishes of 1086 A.D. It seems therefore reasonable to
assume that between the eleventh and twelfth centuries a change
had come about which resulted in the north-eastern concentration
of the woollen trade of Essex—a concentration not directly
related to the area of maximum wool production. Woollen cloth-
making probably still remained a household industry throughout
the county, but it seems beyond reasonable doubt that the greater
part of the woollen trade had already become localised in the
Colchester-Coggeshall area.
From the writer's earlier argument that enclosure was com-
paratively early in south-east Essex, and the evidence of the
distribution of sheep in 1086 afforded by Domesday, it seems not
unlikely that the south-eastern coastland—that part nearest to the
continent—may have been the scene of a woollen industry on a
minor scale about the eleventh century. Clearly the inhabitants
of the south-eastern coastland of the time had overcome any
difficulty offered by field systems, and were able to rear the
greatest sheep flocks in the county—certainly in excess of local
requirements judging from the population of the area mentioned
in Domesday. Thus it seems clear that, by the eleventh century,
the south-east coastal stretch produced the greatest quantity of
wool in the county. The district was, no doubt, able to achieve
this, as the usual difficulty connected with the Saxon three-field
system does not appear to have existed here. No doubt the near
presence of London and the Continent gave some stimulus to the
production of woollen cloth in excess of local requirements. If
this was the case, then it is pertinent to ascertain why by the close
2 The following lists were consulted and appear to be the only ones existing, viz. :—
Pegolotti's List, the Douai List, Lists in the P.R.O. Accounts Various E.101/126/7.