Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The project aimed to make widely accessible the data gathered on the alien commodity trade as a result of an act of parliament in 1439, which required the formal pairing of alien merchants with English hosts who kept registers of alien business activities. Copies of these registers (or views) were ordered to be returned to the exchequer. The original documents, in Anglo-Norman French and Latin written up in 15th century hands, are available to the public at The National Archives, but the linguistic and palaeographical skills necessary to read them have proven a considerable obstacle to their use, except by a handful of professional scholars who have used the source to provide occasional illustrations of particular points. The project was designed to make the source readily and easily available to a broader readership in the form of a full transcript, as well as an English translation, and a database. The project further examined the antecedents and context of the 1439 legislation, and sought to identify the social, political and economic forces driving this early effort to isolate and control alien communities. It explored the data in terms of the contemporary good and bad alien stereotypes. It also assessed the mechanics of the administrative system employed for data collection, its adequacy to the task, and the methods used by aliens to evade it.
Main Topics:
The database contains 6 related tables which record the names and commodity descriptions from some 2,300 individual business transactions which took place between alien and English merchants during the early 1440s. It includes exact dates of the transaction, where given in the original; the forename and surname of the alien in a standardised spelling, together with his role as supplier or client, and the description of his status as given in the preamble to the original document. The forename and surname of the merchant with whom he dealt is also entered in a standardised spelling, together with his or her role as supplier or client, and a note of his or her trade affiliation or social status where it is known. A description of the commodity is entered, including any specification as to its colour or quality, the commodity then being assigned to an appropriate category of goods (spice, fabric, food, drink household, manufacture, personal, military, construction, fur). The weight, measurement or number of the commodity as given in the original is entered, with the price paid in sterling (sd) and an automatically generated equivalent price in pence (d) to facilitate calculation. Additionally, an indication is given as to whether the price applies only to one particular commodity, or represents an overall price for a transaction covering several listed commodities.
No sampling (total universe)
Transcription of existing materials
Compilation or synthesis of existing material
