The Town Economy

This chapter provides the town&s;s role by examining all the non-agricultural occupations in the area as a whole. A wider-based sample obtained from the probate records suggests that non-agricultural occupations were over three times as common in the town as in the area. The mid-seventeenth century changes in the economy involved a far greater proportion of the population of the area being dependent on corn grown commercially. In the town, meanwhile, there was less opportunity for such craftsmen to farm as smallholders or otherwise, so that very few tailors appeared among the probate records. Perhaps of most significance for the role of the town in the economy of the area was the fact that the valuable stock of these men was for sale in private shops on their own premises, so that the population of the area was no longer so dependent on weekly purchases from the Drapery.