Jim Bolton (historian) explained

James L. Bolton, FRHistS, published as J. L. Bolton but otherwise commonly known as Jim Bolton,^[1] is an English medieval economic historian. Between 1965 and 1994, he taught at Queen Mary College (now Queen Mary University of London), where he remains a Professorial Research Fellow.

Career

Bolton arrived at Queen Mary in 1965 and remained on the staff until taking early retirement in 1994. As of 2018, he remains a Professorial Research Fellow there.^{[1] [2]} He holds a BLitt degree from the University of Oxford, awarded in 1971 for his "Alien merchants in England in the reign of Henry VI, 1422–61", supervised by G. A. Holmes.^[3]

Bolton researches medieval economic history, with a focus on merchants and money in England (especially relating to London and its international links) and foreigners living in England during the late medieval period. According to Christopher Dyer, a professor at the University of Leicester, Bolton is a "much respected and well liked figure in London academic circles".^[2]

Honours

Bolton is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society,^[4] and was the dedicatee of a festschrift edited by Matthew Davies and Martin Allen: Medieval Merchants and Money: Essays in Honour of James L. Bolton (Institute of Historical Research, 2016).^[2]

Selected publications

• Money in the Medieval English economy, 973–1489, Manchester Medieval Series (Manchester University Press, 2012).
• "Was there a 'crisis of credit' in fifteenth-century England?" (Howard Linecar Lecture to the British Numismatic Society, 2009), British Numismatic Journal, vol. 81 (2011), pp. 144–64.
• "When did Antwerp replace Bruges as the commercial and financial centre of north-western Europe? The evidence of the Borromei ledger for 1438", The Economic History Review, vol. 61, no. 2 (2008), pp. 360–379.
• "Irish migration to England in the late middle ages: the evidence of 1394 and 1440", Irish Historical Studies, vol. 32, no. 125 (2000), pp. 1–21.
• The Alien Communities of London in the Fifteenth Century: The Subsidy Rolls of 1440 and 1483–4 (Richard III and Yorkist History Trust/Paul Watkins, 1998).
• "'The world upside down': Plague as an agent for social and economic change", in M. Ormrod and P. Lindley (eds.), The Black Death in England (Paul Watkins, 1996), pp. 17–78.
• "The City and the Crown, 1456–61", The London Journal, 12 (1986), pp. 11–24.
• The Medieval English Economy, 1150–1500 (London: Dent, 1980).

Notes and References

1. https://www.qmul.ac.uk/history/our-staff/emeritus-academic-staff/profiles/boltonjim.html "Professor Jim Bolton"
2. [Christopher Dyer]
3. http://www.history.ac.uk/history-online/theses/thesis/alien-merchants-england-reign-henry-vi-1422-61 "Alien merchants in England in the reign of Henry VI, 1422–61."
4. https://5hm1h4aktue2uejbs1hsqt31-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/RHS-Fellows-B.pdf "Fellows – B"