If you had been born 400 years ago, what would your life have been like? Cecily and Nicholas lived then, and this is an exciting story of how they discovered and unmasked a plot which would have ruined Nicholas's father. He was a wealthy wool merchant and was living on the Cotswolds in 1493. Cecily lived at Newbury. Nicholas went to school at the Parsonage, but liked better to slip away with Hal, the shepherd's son, to watch the flocks or help at the shearing, and it was in the fields the he got his first clue to what was going on. Lombard moneylenders were behind it, inveigling the merchants into debt, and smuggling shiploads of valuable wool out of the country. A cheery character is Nicholas's Uncle who had been a pirate but had reformed, and dreamed of racing Columbus to the Indies.

The author's own excellent drawings help delightfully to fill out the whole scene. 

For ages 11-16.

From the dust jacket

Nicholas's father is a member of England's most important industry, governed by the Fellowship of the Merchants of the Wool Staple during the Tudor period of the late 15th century. So, Nicholas must learn all there is to know about the wool business. But, he'd rather be outside with his friend Hal, tending the sheep and living a life of relative freedom with Hal's father, the shepherd. Once some shifty-looking Italians visit, though, and Nicholas suspects they are up to no good, his interest in the business grows. His father will hear no suggestion that the Italian merchants are nothing but honest businessmen, so Nicholas and his friends must try to discover their secrets on their own. Can they uncover the smuggling ring and outwit the plot to ruin Nicholas's father? A great historical adventure that thrills from start to finish, this book was awarded the Carnegie Medal in 1951 and named one of the 100 best children's books of twentieth century in the Keith Barker Millennium Awards.

From Hillside Education edition