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Prices did move based on supply and demand. The main issue dictating this was actually the limitations of transport. In areas with ready access to water transpo

Prices did move based on supply and demand. The main issue dictating this was actually the limitations of transport. In areas with ready access to water transport though, you will find price integration (i.e. local prices moving together) and this is definitely true to a significant extent in the UK (another good example, obviously, are the Low Countries which were heavily integrated into global markets). One thing to bear in mind with the historiography of this is that historians think what you say is true, and it is definitely true to an extent, because food rioting and all the actions limiting the grain trade are highly visible to us. But it is worth remembering that the basis for economic life was quite different. You had the market but, if you were a serf, you were protected against total destitution (except in periods of severe population pressure) so all of this stuff wasn't quite as sensitive as you think (it also wasn't political in any sense that we recognise today, all of this was handled locally). What definitely was sensitive (and often political in a way that makes sense today) were food riots...but that isn't the same thing. Source: http://faculty.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/gclark/papers/market99.pdf http://faculty.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/gclark/papers/market... - there is tons of stuff generally measuring the cointegration of prices in medieval bulk commodities markets.

squiggleblaz 7y ago
> Prices did move based on supply and demand. The main issue dictating this was actually the limitations of transport. In areas with ready access to water transport though, you will find price integration (i.e. local prices moving together) and this is definitely true to a significant extent in the UK (another good example, obviously, are the Low Countries which were heavily integrated into global markets). The UK did not exist in medieval England, and the medieval Dutch weren't known for trading with the Javanese and the Maori.
- hogFeast 7y ago
  Just read the research. And I didn't say the UK existed, I said the market existed across the UK (if you read the research, you would know that price integration has been proved across medieval England, Wales, and Scotland i.e. what is the UK today). And yes, but neither the Javanese or the Maori grew grain (the Maori were still nomadic in this period, growing grain would have made no sense). Again: the integration has been proved for the grain markets that existed around Western Europe, the Baltic regions (and Asia if you consider Russia in this period), north Africa, and the Levant i.e. the global grain market that existed in medieval periods. No, this doesn't include China, where there was substantial internal trade in this period, but this doesn't seem to be a huge difference.

squiggleblaz 7y ago

> Prices did move based on supply and demand. The main issue dictating this was actually the limitations of transport. In areas with ready access to water transport though, you will find price integration (i.e. local prices moving together) and this is definitely true to a significant extent in the UK (another good example, obviously, are the Low Countries which were heavily integrated into global markets). The UK did not exist in medieval England, and the medieval Dutch weren't known for trading with the Javanese and the Maori.

hogFeast 7y ago
Just read the research. And I didn't say the UK existed, I said the market existed across the UK (if you read the research, you would know that price integration has been proved across medieval England, Wales, and Scotland i.e. what is the UK today). And yes, but neither the Javanese or the Maori grew grain (the Maori were still nomadic in this period, growing grain would have made no sense). Again: the integration has been proved for the grain markets that existed around Western Europe, the Baltic regions (and Asia if you consider Russia in this period), north Africa, and the Levant i.e. the global grain market that existed in medieval periods. No, this doesn't include China, where there was substantial internal trade in this period, but this doesn't seem to be a huge difference.