DURING the great slump of the 1440s and 1460s, overseas trade contracted: the number of broadcloths exported and the receipts from the payment of poundage fell by about 40 per cent from earlier in the century, wine imports dropped, wool prices slumped, and buyers were hard to find. Kent and Sussex ports could not escape the general malaise. Furthermore, in August 1457 several thousand French troops attacked Sandwich, burning, killing, and looting. Resources that might have been invested in trade were diverted to repair the damaged walls. On the other hand, ports in both counties had long exported grain and wood (especially firewood), and in the mid fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries the volume of these exports grew as trade with the Low Countries, Normandy, and Brittany expanded.

Behind this expansion of cross-Channel trade lay the rise of small vessels of under 100 tons as the common carrier of northern Europe. The really large ship was uneconomical in anything but the most distant trades. She was slow, difficult to freight, and required a large crew. A smaller boat was much easier to load, its shallower draft made it less affected by silting, it could be turned around quickly, and it was ideally suited for cross-Channel hauls. Small boats could also be used for fishing, and several masters switched back and forth between fishing and overseas trade depending on the season of the year.