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Commercial activity of London men of business was complicated and reflected a contradictory social and economic nature of the 14th — 16th town itself.
First of all, merchants carried on a large-scale trade in London, inside and outside England. It was trade, seen as worthy, honorable and pious work, that took the most important part of their minds and required from them manifestation of rationalism, common sense, business activity, professionalism and understanding that their aim was to get additional benefits. Wealth which became the measure of achieved success and social importance caused a complicated conflict with some elements of Christian consciousness. How to use this wealth and not to be cast into hell-fire, but to provide for the family and close people was the problem which aldermen tried to solve in their wills. Understanding of the risk that accompanied their profession and the desire to provide their safety incited aldermen to search for God's and saints' protection which is reflected in a widely spread practice of sacrifices recorded in their wills. In fact, it can be said that the merchant class worked out a new type of religiousness which combined the belief in God and fear of after death punishment with a commercial approach to the so called “good works” that brought success in the land of the living and a reward after death. Great opportunities for trade and having income were given by livery, merchant by nature, companies whose members were merchants-aldermen. Besides them in the 14th -16th centuries there were also family associations, companies of merchants-? of Calais and merchants-adventurers, and a number of new corporations that emerged and functioned on share principles in the 16th — the begi
It was especially seen in the 16th century when a considerable expansion of the scale and trade spheres of London aldermen took place. There are solid grounds for speaking about the co
Another important sphere of London merchants' economic activities was lending operations that co
Recognizing priority significance of commercial and financial activity for men of business in London of the 14th — 16th centuries, it is necessary to note that many of them were also owners of land and real estate in the town and various counties of England. During this time capital received from trade was actively invested into buying land and property by the richest London class of merchants. This was caused by different factors: by special significance of land property at that time, for reasons of social prestige, by the necessity of reducing economic risks and providing guaranteed income, food and raw material. With regard to the town we should speak mainly about commercial by its nature possession of houses. In particular, aldermen rented not so many parcels of land as premises that brought a considerable income to town: shops, hotels, dwelling houses, workshops, shipyards and so on. If land was rented, it was more often used for development. Transactions in land owning concluded by London merchants-aldermen covered a wide social range: representatives of various categories of citizens (merchants, petty traders, and craftsmen), noblemen, church and monasteries. Aldermen not only strengthened their position in the city economy but partly created rather dangerous competitors for themselves, especially in church and monasteries and inevitably came into the zone of conflict with them. In full it showed up in the second third of the 16th century when powerful London merchants joined the wide scale activities of the royal power on the sale of secularized Church lands and monasteries' property.
In the 16th century pastures, “fenced pastures”, and “farms” emerged in the structure of country real estate of men of business. Representatives of big merchant class tried to use lands to receive profit from the advanced in technical respect agriculture that was closely co
Thus, in the 16th century men of business turned to be co
Along with this we should mention such a tendency as e
However, we should not overestimate the degree of London business community e