Imported fabrics and their social reach in Valencia and its kingdom (14th‑15th centuries)

Abstract

Through both fiscal and notarial records, this study focuses on the role played by imported fabrics in a great late-medieval city such as Valencia. It shows how most of the market was dominated by locally produced fabrics, which in some cases were born from the imitation of these imports. On the contrary, foreign woolen cloths, arrived almost exclusively from Flanders and England, constituted a smaller market to which not only the nobles aspired, but also a relatively large group of bourgeois who used to have a few imported garments for the most important occasions. It cannot be said, in this case, that the international cloth trade is at the basis of the consumption habits of the local population, but rather that it was a very exclusive sector dominated by a few local merchants. Nevertheless, this exclusive sector of imported fabrics was much more important because of the imitation effect in the local textile production, which partly guided the evolution of this industry in Valencia.