11 To 18 Century, The Rise And Fall Of Exeter Trade

Britain is one of the typical countries in the world history. Its history has attracted a lot of interest of many historians. As the largest city in southwestern Britain, the economic development of Exeter has its special side. This article ia mainly aimed at investigating the general line of the city’s economic development during11th century to18th century, and from this, this paper wants to show the various process of an active economic city, which has an initial stage, prosperous period, the relative decline and vibrant development, and according to this, this paper also wants to give the reasons for such changes. In addition, through the research of the Exeter’s economic and trade, we can from a port in perspective to pry the trade plays an important role in the historical development, which helps us to perspective the overall economic development.The whole article is divided into three parts.Chapter Ⅰ briefly introduces the early history of the city of Exeter and the general development of economic after the Norman Conquest. The development of this period was mainly due to it is the largest city in southwestern Britain, and since the Rome-British period, it has been used as the southwestern political and economic centre, after the Norman Conquest, Exeter has become a religious centre in southwest. These factors make the economic of Exeter has got a preliminary development.Chapter Ⅱ discusses the local markets and regional trade in the14-15century. With the prosperity of the markets and fairs trade of city, Exeter become the largest exchange centre of commodity in southwest Britain. With the re-export of goods, Exeter and other parts of Devon county maintained extensive economic ties. Exeter is located in the southwest Britain wool producing areas, so that the wool and woolen goods become the main export commodities of Exeter in14-15century.Chapter Ⅲ investigates the prosperity and decline of trade in Exeter from16th to18th century. In sixteenth century, Exeter had completed the transition from the wool exports to the serge exports, in the seventeenth century, Exeter had the special industrial organization of serge production, so that the serge trade reached its peak. Due to the impact of the war, Exeter’s serge export trade reduced greatly in eighteenth century, but other trades brought by the serge trade makes the economic development vibrantly in Exeter.