This study is focused upon the use of forward agreements for the purchase of wool. It would therefore make sense to discuss our source material in more detail at the outset. We have been able to identify, transcribe and translate, from both Latin and Anglo-Norman French, over two hundred contracts, ranging in date from 1200 to 1327, which deal with the advance purchase of wool. These contracts survive principally among the records of central government housed at the National Archives, Kew, and particularly among series where commercial debts were registered and disputes addressed and settled. The system for commercial debt registration as a whole was well developed by this time in England, and the debt recognitions for wool take their place alongside more general debt negotiations and governmental finance.

In their most basic form, the wool debt recognitions constitute an acknowledgement by the vendor that he has received a sum of money in advance of the delivery of a certain amount of wool, enumerated by the sack, to the buyer at specified terms in the future, whether in the following season or spread over any number of years, the producer further binding himself and his possessions for the faithful repayment of this sum either in cash or wool in the event of his default by a writ of fieri facias to the barons of the Exchequer.