Davis' study takes an interesting angle on considering the state of trade and morality in late medieval England by focusing on a specific market group, local retailers. As Davis demonstrates in his introduction, scholars of the economic conditions of this period in England tend to focus on international trade, merchants in general, or the economic thought on the subject. According to Davis, this overlooks the individuals that engaged in the most regular day to day trade in the marketplace. Furthermore, Davis follows a similar line of argument as Nightingale's "The growth of London" in considering the role that local/internal trade had on London's economic well being. According to Davis, local retailers bore the brunt of attempts to legislate and regulate trade, either from a political or moral perspective, while having the least ability to evince change in these matters.
As with Nightingale's essay, Davis' monograph further fills in the picture of economics and trade in late medieval London. The importance that the burgeoning urban environment had on economics seems greater with each text I read on the matter, suggesting that rather than considering the role of economics and economic thought on the larger scale it's important to remember the effect this has on individuals. Along these lines, Davis' text reminds me that it is problematic to broadly label a group for the purposes of scholarship; even merchants are comprised of a wide spectrum of individuals with varying levels of agency and economic impact.
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