Colchester's growth of trade and industry during the later fourteenth century brought about major changes in the composition, level and distribution of wealth. The assessment of movables in 1334, on which the borough continued to be taxed, soon became grossly unrepresentative of the real state of affairs. Not all the implications of these changes can be observed, for want of evidence concerning the distribution of wealth. But some new features of life in the town are sufficiently in evidence to be worthy of comment, particularly the expansion of credit and the growth of the merchant class.

A glance at the growing bulk of Colchester's court rolls is enough to demonstrate the expansion of business during the years following the Black Death. The total number of pleas brought to the courts increased by about five times between the mid 1350s and the early 1380s. More revealing than mere totals, however, is an analysis of litigation by types of plea. In the mid 1350s about one half of all pleas brought to court were for trespass–a broad category including all civil cases arising from assault and damage to property. The subsequent increase in the number of such pleas was no more than might be expected in the wake of rising urban population. Meanwhile, the number of pleas of other kinds increased more rapidly, so that by the early 1380s pleas of trespass accounted for less than one fifth of the total.