The Most Necessary Luxuries: The Mercers' Company of Coventry, 1550-1680.

Reviewed by Ronald H. Fritze

During the late middle ages, Coventry was one of the leading regional cities of England. Building its prosperity on the surrounding rich lands that produced grain and wool in abundance, the city established thriving cloth and thread industries. At the same time Coventry housed numerous monastic communities that contributed to its robust economy. That regional economic preeminence, however, deteriorated dramatically beginning in the late fifteenth century and continuing through the mid-sixteenth century. During those years population stagnated or declined, local industries faltered, and the Reformation brought about the dissolution of the monasteries. Many English towns suffered from the same general, urban …