The growth of Colchester's population and industry in the later fourteenth century was accompanied by an expansion of every type of marketing institution. Trade through Hythe greatly increased, as did trade in foodstuffs and raw materials through the central town markets. The wool trade can be shown to have grown, and so can the meat trade. In 1359 ‘all the butchers of Colchester’ numbered 13, but in 1400 ‘all the butchers of the town of Colchester’ numbered 21. There was also an increased influx of butchers from other places coming to sell meat in the market on Saturdays. Meanwhile there was growth in the informal trade between burgesses which took place in private homes and elsewhere. New shops were built; new taverns were opened, so that by 1400 there were between 15 and 20 of them; new inns were established for the benefit of visiting travellers, until by 1400 there were at least 13. All these types of rendezvous occur frequently in litigation for debt as scenes of bargaining and exchange. The growth of trade inevitably increased the work involved in enforcing the statutes relating to prices and measures, preventing illegitimate trade by non-burgesses, and carrying out the various traditional duties involved in regulating the market.

Of all the traditional concerns the one which loomed largest in this context was the enforcement of the Statute of Forestallers. This was a mounting problem, but in order to see the circumstances it is necessary to make some social distinctions.