The footnote notation x:y means footnote reference "x", page "y".
Number
Term
Meaning
1
attacheurs 7:26
fastenings
2
aulnager 7:36
An officer (England) whose duty it was to inspect and attest the
measure (ells) and quality of woolen cloth and fix a seal upon it.
3
aumonière 7:5
purse or pouch
4
baudrairie 7:25
embroidery
5
botonier 7:51
button-maker
6
boursiers 7:27
purse-makers
7
Caller 7:48
maker of headwear
8
[le] Callere 7:48
maker of cauls, caps, hats
9
Callmaker 7:48
maker of headwear
10
Capiere 7:48
maker of headwear
11
Capiestere 7:48
maker of headwear
12
Capman 7:48
maker of headwear
13
Capper 7:48
maker of headwear
14
Cauls 7:48
maker of headwear
15
chalons 7:60
maker of bed-covers
16
chapeax 7:23
garlands
17
chapeler 7:48
maker of headwear
18
Chauces 7:48
hosiery
19
Cheapside 7:44
a market place to purchase "cheap" goods (old meaning:
good bargain, not goods of poor quality)
20
coiffières 7:27
headwear
21
coifs 7:48
maker of headwear
22
coquillières 7:27
headwear
23
corroyeurs 7:25
girdlers
24
courroyeurs 7:26
girdlers
25
coutiaus d'yvuire 7:26
knives with ivory handles
26
coutouères 7:51
flat braids of great complexity made from high-quality silk
27
coyfer 7:48
maker of headwear
28
crépières 7:27
headwear
29
crespes 7:26
finely pleated (crisped) linen headwear
30
cuevrechiefz 7:26
coverchiefs or kerchief
31
épingles 7:51
pins
32
forces 7:23
scissors
33
fresiaus, galons 7:26
bands (embroidered, or trimmings)
34
frripperers 7:91
unregulated traders, especially in old or used clothes
35
gage d'amour 7:5
purse or pouch
36
guimples, orel, touaille 7:26
gimples, coif (headress of linen or silk)
37
hattere 7:48
maker of headwear
38
hurer, hures 7:48
maker of headwear (hoods)
39
kallemakestere 7:48
maker of headwear
40
[La] Kanevacerye 7:36
market for cheap linen and hemp cloth (canvas)
41
keller 7:48
maker of headwear
42
[le] Lacer 7:48
makers of laces
43
laresta 7:4
fish-bone woven silk
44
l'or empaillolé et l'argent 7:26
silver and gold metal spangles sewed onto silk
45
lingères 7:28
'shepster': Parisien women that sewed garments of linen and hemp-cloth, (menues fripperies)
46
melequin 7:26
type of silk or linen headwear
47
menues fripperies 7:28
garments of linen and hemp-cloth made by Parisien mercery workers
48
opus anglicanum 7:13
silk braids
49
orphreys 7:5
elaborately embroidered bands
50
pailes ouvrez, riches et fins 7:26
silk cloths, worked richly and finely
51
queton 7:23
rouge
52
shepster 7:203
a seamstress of linen
53
spinster
a woman that spins or twists woolen fibers into yarn
54
tableter 7:48, 7:53
those that sold paper writing-tablets
55
tablier or tableter 7:48, 7:53
Pedlar's tray (strap around neck, attached to left and right of tray), or those that sold paper tablets
56
toailles 7:23
coverchiefs
57
toile-linge 7:23
small linen goods
58
throwster 3:328
a woman that spins or twists silk
fibers into yarn. These throwsterers later became guild women
and if married remained "couvert de baron" (their husbands
were responsible for their debts). 3:328
Women that worked alone, answerable for her contracts were called
"feme sole" 3:328.
"Strands from several cocoons were gathered by the reeler into one thread producing raw
silk. 3:329. Silkwomen could be Throwsters,
weavers, or make items such as cauls, tassels, or corses-weavers ("Tissus soie" or fine
silk)3:332.
Mercery means merchandise (merx, mercis: Latin).
Mercery focused upon silk, linen, and fustian (flax and cotton), mostly
through overseas trade, except for linen, and wool also. Silk via the
Silk Trade route (Golden Horde, northern Caspian Sea littoral), as
well as from Genoese, from the Genoese colony at Keffe (Crimea) 7:37,
from the Trebizond Imperium, Byzantium, Persia and Syria, and the
Genoese colony at the southern littoral of the Caspian Sea (Hyrcanian
Ocean) 7:37, and Venice.
Raw silk and silk thread for laces and braid for
embroidery also was imported into London from Italy and Spain as
laresta ("fish-bone" weave or aresta). Mercery was
weighed on a tron (weighing beam) of twenty-two cloves (swing points).
Spices and raw silk were weighed on a small beam tron.
Other names for mercers: mercerius, mercenarius,
merciarius, mercerer, mercherel, merciers
(French). The mercer's wife , or craftswoman of the mercery trade, or
"silkwoman" were important too.
Silk dress accessories included laces, loops, tassels, girdles, braids,
elaborately embroidered bands (orphreys), headwear (coifs [both sexes],
wimples [both sexes], kerchiefs, chaplet {both sexes, over coif or veil or
alone], nets and cauls. Purses or pouches: aumonière, or
gage d'amour. Small merceries such as pins, needles, bells,
knives, etc. Silkwomen also sold opus anglicanum (embroidery).
The mercer's fardel (bundle) might contain little girdles, gloves for
young ladies (single or doubly lined with fur), buckles for girdles,
metal chains to attach to little girdles, saffron-dyed wimples, leather
purses fastened by knots or buttons; fur trimmings of otter, ermine,
sealskin, polain; long laces of silk, linen or leather; buckles
for shoes; pewter fastenings for children; laces for felt hats; silver
and brass pins; fine coverchiefs; beautifully laced coifs of silk to be
worn with garlands (chapeax) embroidered on the front
(d'orfrois par devant) [in linen for esquires]; coifs of hemp
for peasants; Bruges stockings; fastenings of gilded brass and silvered
laton; braids for large buttons of gold and silk, sold at fairs
(que ge vent mout bien a cez foires); coverchiefs (toailles);
fish-hooks; awls (for cobblers); combs, Paris soap; incense; razor; scissors
(forces); mirrors; rouge (queton); toys; spices; etc.
Mercers began as itinerant pedlars (mercerii) carrying goods
on their backs or in trays about their necks (tabletiers), by horse
or wagon trains to fairs or between towns and cities like London or
Paris. Often lowly mercers were viewed as userers or theives that bought
cheap, sold dear. Eventually, covered shops were created (selds in London,
Halles in Paris, identified by decorative signs). As time
progressed, some mercers didn't travel. Some mercers no longer worked
at crafts, but bought and sold goods more like merchants or brokers (and
while itinerant mercers had names that identified their craft, maybe
even had an apprentice), the wealthy merchants changed their names to
make their humble origins obscure, to gain the social prestige befitting
someone lower than an aristocrat, yet higher than a beggar. The lowly
mercer focused upon profit, while the aristocrat is above profit,
by birth (of course). Thus there were mercers with names like "Serlo le
Mercer"; "Adam le Mercer"; "Thomas de Colchester, linen draper"; "Elias
le Callere"; "Alice la Coifer"; "Henry le Botoner", "Robert de Worstead";
"Robert le Hatter"; "John le Chapeler"; "Geoffrey le Tableter"; "Henry
le Wimpler", "Hamo Godcheps", "Katherine Shepster", "William de Laufare,
chaloner", etc.
Thus "mercer" had three meanings:
A range of goods
People that traded in goods
A market area where traders and their range of goods could be found
Craft guilds now existed: (mestier, métier, ministerium,
or mistery, with an alderman and échevins [wardens]).
The mercery in Paris used different words of course: "la Courrerie"
(Girdler Street); La Petite Bouderie (Buckle-makers); La Baudrairie
(embroidery center); market of the Innocents on Champeaux (rues
Saint-Denis and du Louvre): poor lingères; toile-linge
(small linen goods); covered halle of Champeaux included merciers,
and corroyeurs (girdlers); attacheurs (fastenings); headwear
(coquillières; crépières; coiffières;)
ribbon-makers, lacers, braids, pinners, button-makers, spinsters (Parisien female
silk workers), twisters, throwsters
of raw silk (ouvrières de soie); silk coverchiefs, glovers, cappers,
chapelers (chapeliers or garland-makers), paternoster makers (rosaries) in
bone, horn, coral, amber; makers of small writing tablets (tabletiers). Thus a
range of highly specific crafts with their specific names, as the crafts became differentiated
into specialties. It cannot fail to be noticed that mercery specialities were dominated
by women, especially in the linen trade due to the development of the treadle loom
during the eleventh century. Women in Paris dealt independently from male domination in
the linen industry as the Parisien lingères ('shepster') sewing garments
of linen and hemp-cloth, called (menues fripperies).
Most cappers in London came from a Norfolk "hundred". A "hundred" was a subdivision of
a county or shire having is own court 7:48.
Thus some hundreds included the hundred of "Worsted" or the hundred of "Turnstead". See
the two maps, above the glossary.
Lacing (related to knot-making) included braids, cords, gimps, ribbons, coutouères
(flat braids). Botoniers created buttons, often made from brass, copper, laton (copper/tin
alloy), pins (épingles) 7:51.
The London Puy (podium) was a society of guilds (a confraternity), associated with religious
(Catholic) saints, for the patronisation of music and song (chant royal) and poetry, through
competitions. The better educated mercers (communitas de merceria) took part in the
Puy at Guildhall (for all guilds). Fines collected by the mercers for violations of freedom
were paid to the Guildhall chapel of the Puy not for the mercers, but for ALL the guilds
(these were now "gentle" men, or the well-born or privileged, and the the armigerous princes,
the "prince of the Puy") 7:67, 7:69. One might
recall that different guilds had different coats of arms. Thus the Guildhall chapel of the Puy
represented English merchants in overseas or international trade, called "adventuring"
7:121 (with France, the Low Countries, the
Germanies (Hanseatic League, Cologners and the Spław, River Trade in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia in the
18th Century 7:133, see
estherlederberg%202018/EImages/Extracurricular/Dickens%20Universe/International/Russian%20Art/Polish%20Estate%20Jews.html#SPLAW%20SPLAW,
and the Italians [Lombards]) 7:70.
In fact, all classes of textile women sang chansons de toile (linen songs)
7:71, thus the Puy represented social harmony
united with musical harmony.
As the mercers moved up in society, away from lowly pedlars to international traders and
wholesalers, other groups of people started to compete with the mercers. Haberdashers (Icelandic
hapertask, or pedlar's sack, especially of headwear) began to compete with the work that
the itinerant mercers or small retail mercers did 7:118.
Just as the haberdashers started to compete with the itinerant mercers, the drapers started to
compete with the tailors 7:119. Mercers worked with linen
(toile, tela, linge), while drapers (draperie), worked with woollen cloth.
Thus the ambiguous "linen-draper"?
Mercers moved gradually from silk into wool, worsted, woollen cloth and linen 7:129,
and light cothes (sayetteries)7:142, related to worsteds.
The "staple" meant the primary center for the trade and taxation of
raw wool (thus Stapleton, Stapleford), thus Dodrecht was the staple in 1338,
Bruges in 1343 (Note: Black Plague, 1347), Calais is the staple port after 1363,
merchants called merchants of the staple and wool staplers or
staplers.
References
Blackham, Robert J. "The Soul of the City:
London's Livery Companies, Their Storied Past, Their Living Present"
Boffey, Julia; King, Pamela; (Eds.) "London and
Europe in the Later Middle Ages", Paper #7: "The Tumbling Bear and
Its Patrons: A Venue for the London Puy and Mercery", by Anne Sutton
Dale, Marian K.; "The Economic History Review",
Vol. a4 (3), pp. 324-335, Oct. 1933, "The London Silkwomen of the Fifteenth Century"
Hazlitt, W. Carew; "The Livery Companies of the City of London:
Their Origin, Character, Development, and Social and Political Importance"
Postan, M. M; (Ed.) "Medieval Women"
Sutton, Anne F.; "I Siing of a Maiden:
The Story of the Maiden of the Mercer's Company"
Sutton, Anne F.; "The Mercery of London:
Trade, Goods and People, 1130-1578"
Sutton, Anne F.; "Wives and Widows of Medieval London"
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