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Cistercian Sheep, Farming and Wool-Sales in the Thirteenth Century

Medieval hunt - images of sheep

Cistercian Sheep, Farming and Wool-Sales in the Thirteenth Century

By R.A. Donkin

Agricultural History Review, Volume 6 (1958)

Medieval hunt - images of sheep
Medieval hunt – images of sheep

Introduction: The list of wool-producing monasteries drawn up by Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, a member of the merchant house of Bardi, contains a larger proportion of Cistercian houses (about 85 per cent) than of any other order.  Prices per sack are quoted for almost every house, but these must be used with care. They are not directly comparable with those fixed on a county basis for the wool grant of 1337. The Pegolotti figures are the earlier, probably by at least forty years; they include the cost of carriage from England to Flanders and the profit due to the merchant; and they are usually given for three grades, of which the ‘middle’ wool probably represents the average county product.

Nevertheless, if we subtract four marks from the prices of ‘best’ wool and two from those of ‘middle’ wool– amounts suggested by a study of prices actually obtained on various occasions by Cistercian houses–there is still every indication that the monks were getting more for their wool than most other producers. How much more would of course depend upon the proportion which ‘best’ wool bore to the total, and this we have no means of knowing. There is, however, some evidence to support the view that the Cistercians occasionally marketed an intrinsically better product and very often prepared their clip more carefully.

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