The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves

by Matt Ridley

The 1200s were the golden high-water mark of the Middle Ages. Courts were richly furnished; monasteries flourished; cathedrals rose towards the sky; troubadours strutted their stuff. Watermills, windmills, bridges and ports were built all over England. Fairs and markets proliferated and thrived: there was an unprecedented surge in commercial activity between 1150 and 1300. A good part of it was driven by the wool trade. As Flemish merchants sought out more and more English wool to supply the cloth makers of Flanders, so they provided livelihoods for ship owners, fullers and above all sheep farmers. The national sheep flock boomed to perhaps ten million animals, more than two sheep per person. The English had found a comparative advantage in their mild, wet, grass-growing climate – a gain from trade – supplying Europe’s fibre. Specialisation and exchange fuelled population growth.