Half a Century of Darkness: The Great Slump — The Deepest Credit Crunch in British History
Chapter One: The Great Slump (c. 1430–1480/1490) The deepest, most pervasive, and longest-lasting medieval depression in British economic history Introduction: A “credit crunch” that consumed half a century In the mid-fifteenth century, England faced an economic downturn that modern economic historians term the “Great Slump” or the “mid-fifteenth-century depression.” This downturn began in Northern England in the 1430s, spread to the south in the 1440s, and true recovery did not arrive until the 1480s; the period spanned approximately 50–60 years. Economic historian John Hatcher, in his renowned work “The Great Slump of the Mid-Fifteenth Century” (published in *Progress and Problems in Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Edward Miller*, Cambridge University Press, 1996), explicitly described it as “one of the deepest, most pervasive and enduring of all depressions.” Key Causes: Bullion famine, weather, war, and credit contraction The Great Bullion Famine (Global shortage of silv...