Trades and crafts, each of which had to be licensed, grouped
together by specialty in the town. Cloth-makers, dyers, tanners,
and fullers were near an accessible supply of running water, upon
which their trade depended. Streets were often named by the trade
located there, such as Butcher Row, Pot Row, Cordwainer Row,
Ironmonger Row, Wheeler Row, and Fish Row. Hirers of labor and
sellers of wheat, hay, livestock, dairy products, apples and wine,
meat, poultry, fish and pies, timber and cloth all had a distinct
location. Some young men were apprenticed to craftsmen to assist
them and learn their craft.
London had at least twenty wards, each governed by its own
alderman. Most of them were named after people. London was ruled
by sixteen families linked by business and marriage ties. These
businesses supplied luxury goods to the rich and included the
goldsmiths [sold cups, dishes, girdles, mirrors, purses knives,
and metal wine containers with handle and spout], vintners [wine
merchants], mercers [sold textiles, haberdashery, combs, mirrors,
knives, toys, spices, ointments, and potions], drapers, and
pepperers, which later merged with the spicers to become the
"grocers", skinners, tanners, shoemakers, woolmen, weavers,
fishmongers, armorers, and swordsmiths. There were bakehouses at
which one could leave raw joints of meat to be cooked and picked
up later. These businesses had in common four fears: royal
interference, foreign competition, displacement by new crafts, and
violence by the poor and escaped villeins who found their way to
the city.
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