The fourteenth century commenced spectacularly with the greatest boom in the history of the wool trade. It is not clear just why the stagnation which followed the war gave way abruptly to a period of prosperity but it is impossible to doubt that the change was associated with developments within the Flemish cloth industry. The boom was retarded, although not reversed, by conflict between Flanders and France and surged ahead once that dispute was ended. The total export for the Exchequer year 1300–1 was 34 608 sacks and although that for 1301–2 was only 16 809 sacks most of this was the product of the 1301 clip. Not until the summer of 1302 did the Flemish market fail, with the result that very little of the current clip was exported before Michaelmas. In 1302–3 and 1303–4 exports were 31 381 sacks and 32 538 sacks, while in 1304–5 they reached 46 382 sacks. In fact this last figure is inflated by a delay in shipping much of the 1304 clip until after Michaelmas. The real explosion did not come until the summer of 1305, following the conclusion of peace between France and Flanders. Therefore the figures of 41 412 sacks and 41 574 for 1305–6 and 1306–7 are more conclusive proof that a boom was under way.

The Franco-Flemish dispute had its origins in the recent war with England.