SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



sellers of parchment), bukbynders, hosyers, spicers, pewterers, founders, tylers, chaundellers, 

 orfeuers, goldbeters, monemakers, masons, marsshals, girdellers, naylers, sawiers, spuriers, lorymers, 

 harbours, vynters, finers (smiths), coutureurs, irenmangers, plummers, patenmakers, pouchemakers, 

 hoteliers, capmakers, skynners, cuttellers, bladesmyths, shethers, scalers, buklermakers, horners, 

 bakers, cordwaners, bowers, flecchers, tapisers, couchers, littesters, cukes, waterleders, tielmakers, 

 milners, tumours, hayresters (workers in horse hair ?) botlers (bowlmakers ?), toundours, pynners, 

 latoners, payntours, bouchers, pulters (poulterers), sellers (saddlers), verrours (glaziers), fuystours 

 (joiners, makers of saddle trees ?), carpenters, wyredrawers, broggours (brokers ?), wolpakkers, 

 escrieuveners, luminers, questors (pardoners ?), dubbers (furnishers of old cloth), talliaunders (tailors), 

 potters, drapers, lynwevers, wevers of woollen, hostilers, and mercers.' '' It is suflSciently formidable 

 to suggest the idea that the population of York during the mediaeval period has been considerably 

 underrated. 



On 28 April 1394 an unusually large meeting of the city council was held ; the mayor, the 

 baili£^, the probi homines and the communitas, were all present. It was then decided that all the 

 pageants of Corpus Christi should be acted in the places where they were accustomed to be played 

 of old time (antiguitus), and in case this order was disobeyed the recalcitrant craft was to be 

 fined 6s. 8^.55 



In 1397 so great was the fame of the York pageants that Richard II came to the city for the 

 purpose of seeing them.'* But dissatisfaction was still rife, because the plays which were produced 

 at such great expense were repeated so often and at such small distances apart that the effect was 

 marred. The civic authorities then decided that in the future they should only be given in twelve 

 places : — 



1. At the gates of the Priory of the Holy Trinity in Micklegate, 



2. At the door of Robert Harpham. 



3. At the door of John de Gyseburn. 



4. At Skeldergatehend and Northstrethend. 



5. At the end of Conyngstrete towards the Castlegate. 



6. At the end of Jubbergate. 



7. At the door of Henry Wyman in Conyngstrete. 



8. At the end of Conyngstrete near the Common Hall. 



9. At the door of Adam del Brigg. 



10. At the gate of the Minster of the Blessed Peter. 



1 1. At the end of Gyrdlergate in Petergate. 



12. Upon the Pavement.^' 



From 1 1 64, when the first York gild, the weavers, is heard of,'* down to 1832, when the 

 Merchant Adventurers were shorn of their last vestige of power, the gild movement was a factor 

 that had to be reckoned with in the industrial development of the city. During the early stages of 

 national growth there is little doubt that the gilds, with their highly-specialized organization, their 

 high standard of workmanship, their discouragement of competition, their insistence on proper 

 training, did much to promote mercantile progress. But their influence during the 15th and 

 1 6th centuries was probably at the root of the decay of many of the old Yorkshire towns. 

 From the broader outlook of the prosperity of Yorkshire as opposed to the prosperity of its few 

 towns, there can be little doubt that the influence of the gilds was, unconsciously certainly, on the 

 side of progression. The size of Yorkshire, its late development, the isolated character of some 

 of the districts, necessitated the application of some strong stimulus, before the county as a whole 

 could be opened up. By a too rigid enforcement of gild rules, enterprise and skilled industry was 

 driven from the cities into the country districts. The growth of Halifax, Leeds, and Bradford more 

 than counterbalanced the decay of York, Beverley, Ripon, and Pontefract. 



The 15th century may be regarded as a transition period in the economic history of 

 Yorkshire. All the forces were at work which were during the i6th century to produce a 

 complete upheaval in the industrial life of the people ; the attention of the territorial landlord was 

 concentrated on the dynastic quarrels ; the attention of the Church on preserving its own power 

 intact ; the burgher class was left to follow the pursuit of wealth unhampered by its ecclesiastical 

 or feudal superior. Civic strife was rampant in all the Yorkshire towns whose records are available ; 

 but apparently these disturbances were not incompatible with the slow though steady growth of 

 wealth among the bulk of the people. 



The first half of the i6th century is especially important in treating of the economic expansion 

 of Yorkshire. The rich monasteries owned so much land that their suppression gave the wealthy 



» York Memo. Bk. loc. cit. » Ibid. fol. 18. " R. Davies, op. cit. 2»o 



» York Memo. Bk. fol. 187^ ; F. Brake, Eior. App. xxxii. 



" ft>« R. 10 Hen. II (Pipe R. See), 12 ; York Memo. Bk. fol. 143. 



447 



