This study has not been designed to generate broad generalisations about medieval urban economies, but a few further comments on the exceptional nature of Colchester's economic history in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries may now conveniently be drawn together. They concern the relevance of Colchester's experience for the general interpretation of English economic performance in this period. In 1334, having failed to benefit much from commercial developments of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Colchester's standing as an English town had been a humble one. By 1524 the position was considerably improved. In taxable wealth the borough ranked as England's twelfth largest town, after London, Norwich, Bristol, Coventry, Exeter, Salisbury, Southwark, Ipswich, King's Lynn, Canterbury and Reading. Judged by its number of taxpayers it stood even higher, above Coventry, Reading, King's Lynn and Ipswich. Colchester had overtaken some of England's foremost ports (notably Hull, Boston, Great Yarmouth and Southampton) as well as some major inland cities (Lincoln, Oxford, Gloucester, Winchester, Cambridge). This outstanding success, when set against the record of Colchester's economic performance, suggests a number of observations about the nature of urban prosperity in the late Middle Ages.

Colchester's medieval records confirm that personal wealth in the borough increased between 1334 and 1524 and that this was partly the result of industrial and commercial development.