The opportunities which presented themselves to Colchester's cloth manufacturers during the 50 years after 1412 did not permit continuous growth, but it is likely that cloth output in the borough did not reach its peak until the 1440s. The recorded leases of the wool market imply that the level of activity attained in 1411/12 and 1413/14, when the rent stood at £9 6s 8d, was not surpassed until the 1440s, when in at least one year it reached £12. That was in 1443/4, a year of exceptionally heavy cloth exports through Ipswich. The intervening years were a period of lower rents, particularly during the early 1430s. The recovery of the late 1430s and the 1440s was a direct consequence of the coming of German merchants from 1437, and the high level of trade in the 1440s was unlikely to have survived the waning of their interest. After 1449, unfortunately, the lease of the wool market was amalgamated with that of overland tolls, but the combined rent in the 1470s was still the same as the sum of the two separate rents in 1448/9, and this implies that the wool market was probably valued at £8 a year.

The evidence of the wool markets is complemented by that of the ulnage accounts. Table 12.1 shows the number of cloth sales ascribed to Colchester during the years 1461–78 and compares it with the available figures from the 1390s.