Amlingyn, Katherine (fl. late-15th c.)

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Amlingyn, Katherine (fl. late-15th c.)

Erfurt merchant. Flourished in the late-15th century.

Merchants in the city of Erfurt, Katherine Amlingyn and her daughter ran a trading company specializing in woad, a plant of the mustard family from which blue textile dye was made. Erfurt was an important woad center at the time. Apparently Katherine Amlingyn was quite successful and ran a large operation, dealing with buyers in cities all across southern Europe. The mother-daughter trading firm even involved other outside merchants as partners. Although this kind of business arrangement was unusual, the Amlingyns reveal that it was possible for women to form independent mercantile businesses in the late Middle Ages.

Laura York , Anza, California