The later Middle Ages has frequently been seen through a glass darkly: as a world still dominated by mental and demographic traumas of the Black Death. Here was a retreat from the thirteenth-century demographic and commercial peak, with a shrunken GNP. But the period may also be seen in a much more optimistic light. The demographic slump opened up enormous opportunities. More land could be acquired as tenants or lessees, tenants were able to free themselves from the burdens of serfdom, there were greater opportunities for mobility, and for choices within a consumer economy. Labour shortages paradoxically allowed wage earners to benefit, through higher payments. But the surpluses which were generated were there to be spent. Historians have shown a growing interest in consumption and a consumer economy. Christopher Dyer has written of a more varied diet and of generally increased consumption of clothing, housing, goods and services, and of the impact of consumption in stimulating the rest of the economy, emphasising that the growth of consumerism in the eighteenth century had ‘a modest precursor in the late Middle Ages’. Maryanne Kowaleski has written more dramatically of a ‘consumer revolution’ of the later Middle Ages. This period was to see a growth in consumption per head, and growing specialisation and professionalism. Such developments would have generated more new jobs, in a population that was essentially static. We must be careful not to exaggerate these positive elements, but the commercial elements of the early modern world of the sixteenth century were already established as a natural part of everyday life. This was not restricted to London and had percolated the provinces. Commerce, choice and specialisation were now more widespread. We must beware of assuming that what was visible was necessarily new, and commercial growth was evidently already a feature of the generations around 1300. But the increase in consumption per head generated by such specialisation would have stimulated the whole economy.

For the economic historian, this period remains a time of difficulties, as our sources become much less useful. Demesne agriculture was already in decline by the end of the fourteenth century, and had generally ceased by the middle of the following century. With the retreat to leasing, the manorial account rolls, which have so much to tell us about the lord's agriculture, become much less useful.