Accounts of the English Crown with Italian Merchant Societies, 1272-1345,
List and Index Society, Vol. 331 (2009)
Adrian R. Bell, Chris Brooks and Tony K. Moore

Synopsis
The credit arrangements between the three Edwards and Italian merchants were crucial for financing England’s ambitious foreign policies and ensuring the smooth running of governmental administration. The functioning of this credit system can be followed in detail through the well-kept but mostly unpublished records of the English Exchequer. This volume combines a transcription of the most important surviving accounts between the merchants and the Crown, with a parallel abstract presenting the core data in a double-entry format as credits to or debits from the king's account. This dual format was chosen to facilitate the interpretation of the source while still retaining the language and, as far as possible, the structure of the original documents. The wealth of evidence presented here has much value to add to our understanding of the financing of medieval government and the early development of banking services provided by Italian merchant societies. In particular, although the relationship between king and banker was, for the most part, mutually profitable, the English kings also acquired a reputation for defaulting on their debts and thus 'breaking' a succession of merchant societies. These documents provide an essential basis for a re-examination of the 'credit rating' of the medieval English Crown.

The English Wool Market c. 1230-1327,
Cambridge University Press (August, 2007)
Adrian R. Bell, Chris Brooks and Paul Dryburgh

ISBN-13: 9780521859417

Synopsis
The wool market was extremely important to the English medieval economy and wool dominated the English export trade from the late thirteenth century to its decline in the late fifteenth century. Wool was at the forefront of the establishment of England as a European political and economic power and this volume is the first study of the medieval wool market in over 20 years. It investigates in detail the scale and scope of advance contracts for the sale of wool; the majority of these agreements were formed between English monasteries and Italian merchants, and the book focuses on the data contained within them. The pricing structures and market efficiency of the agreements are examined, employing practices from modern finance. A detailed case study of the impact of entering into such agreements on medieval English monasteries is also presented, using the example of Pipewell Abbey in Northamptonshire.

http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521859417

Advance Contracts for the Sale of Wool c. 1265 - 1315,
List and Index Society, Vol. 315 (2006)

Adrian R. Bell, Chris Brooks and Paul Dryburgh

A research project started in April 2004 with the aim of investigating the scale and scope of advance contracts for the sale of wool in the Middle Ages. It is widely believed by financial market practitioners that derivative instruments such as forward contracts and options are recent inventions. However an examination of the appropriate historical documents demonstrates the existence of quite sophisticated financial contracts much earlier - in England in the Middle Ages, where monasteries frequently sold their wool up to fifteen years in advance, to Italian merchants, for prices agreed on the date that the contract was signed.

This publication provides parallel original Latin/French and translated English versions of these contracts and a summary spreadsheet of the data contained within the contracts. This will be a unique volume, bringing such documentation of financial sophistication and knowledge of medieval wool production to a wide audience, both academic and public. The wealth of surviving evidence has much value to add to the current understanding of the medieval economy.

War and the Soldier in the Fourteenth Century,
The Boydell Press (November, 2004)

Adrian R. Bell

Little is known about the soldiers who fought in the Hundred Years War, though much about tactics and weapons. Adrian Bell's book redresses the balance: he explores the 'military community' through focusing on the records of the two royal expeditions led by Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, in 1387 and 1388, where the extensive surviving evidence makes it possible to identify those who served on these expeditions, and to follow their careers. These campaigns are not only interesting for the wealth and concentration of materials surviving on military organisation, but also because of the political background against which the expeditions were undertaken, which included the attack upon the favourites of the King in Parliament by the Lords Appellant and the possible temporary deposition of Richard II. Advances made in historical computing techniques have made possible for the first time such detailed analysis of the personnel of a royal army.

Website: http://www.boydell.co.uk/43831031.HTM

Credit Finance in the Middle Ages: Loans to the English Crown c. 1272-1340

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) have awarded Dr Adrian Bell and Professor Chris Brooks a major research grant worth just over £350,000 to investigate the early and innovative use of credit finance by a succession of English medieval monarchs.  

The study will examine in detail the credit finance arrangements used by Edward I, II and III from both a historical perspective and also utilise the approaches and models developed recently for modern-day sovereign borrowings.  The project will employ one Research Assistant for three years, and the team will work on a number of publications as well as the production of the transcriptions and translations of many original sources

For more information see: https://www.icmacentre.ac.uk/medievalcredit

The Soldier in later Medieval England: A major new AHRC research project

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has awarded a Research Grant worth just under £500,000 to Dr Adrian Bell of the ICMA Centre and Professor Anne Curry of the University of Southampton to challenge assumptions about the emergence of professional soldiery between 1369 and 1453.

The project has an innovative methodological approach and will be producing an on-line searchable resource for public use of immense value and interest to genealogists as well as social, political and military historians. The project will employ two Research Assistants for three years and also will offer one Doctoral Research Studentship and will begin work on 1st October 2006. The whole team will also work on a jointly authored book, conference papers, and articles.

For more information see: www.medievalsoldier.org

Modern Finance in the Middle Ages? Advance contracts for the supply of wool               

Dr Adrian Bell and Professor Chris Brooks were awarded £45,000 from the ESRC for a unique interdisciplinary project. Their research attempted to push back the boundaries for modern finance into the middle ages - by investigating forward contracts between Cistercian monasteries in England and Italian Merchant Banks during the later half of the thirteenth century. The monasteries frequently sold their wool up to ten years in advance for prices agreed on the date that the contract was signed. These contracts were written by hand and in medieval latin and have survived in governmental records, housed today in the National Archives at Kew. This was the first time that such contracts have been subjected to the rigours of the techniques of modern finance. Could it be that today's financial market whizkids have a thing or two to learn from their ecclesiastical predecessors? The project analysed how efficient these early financial markets were and also produced an edition of the sources to stimulate further research into this fascinating history.

Further details on the award and of the outputs can be found by looking at UK Data Archive, study number 5325: www.data-archive.ac.uk