On the basis of historical accounts (Cartularies, merchants' wills) the article analyses some aspects connected with suburban property of the Aldermen of London, or "urban gentry". This analysis allows to trace a number of ways and mechanisms to buy land and property in English counties used by the merchants, to find out the conditions of land ownership and the reasons which made the London merchants invest in this sphere. Study of sources makes it possible to conclude that the land interests of the Aldermen of London extended to different, even the most distant counties (including Yorkshire). Still, their main interest lay with the counties which traditionally "fed" London - Kent, Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire and others. It was there most Aldermen preferred to have property. Meanwhile, some London merchants owned suburban property by the right of feud. Some leased land and other property in the counties. The development of lease relationships since the mid-XIVth century was caused by a number of reasons: the decline of the demesnial economy due to the low productiveness of corvee labor, lack of manpower due to the epidemics of plague, maladjustment to the market and weakening of economic ties between the peasants' (villeins) holdings and the seigniory as a result of rent commutation. In the end of the 1340s-the second half of the XIVth century a significant part of the Aldermen bought land and owned it as property. Land interests of London gentry and the ways of their realization are vividly highlighted by the rich material contained in the Cartularies of London mercers and Aldermen of the second half of the XIVth century - Adam Fraunceys and John Pyel. The first suburban purchases of these merchants (Fraunceys's in Middlesex and Essex, and Pyel's in Northampton) date back to the period of "Black Death" and can be explained as a result of an epidemic scale of human losses, which led to land price crash, the desire to leave the town and provide victuals. The last factor became especially important within the frame of the XIVth century "agrarian crisis", crop failure, epidemics and military conflicts which took place in the epoch concerned. It must be taken into consideration that since the XIVth century the engrossment of land took place all over England. Still, this process was most widely spread in the south and the west of the country, thus showing to what extent these regions had already been engaged into commodity relations. However, prestige considerations also played a very important role: engrossment of land was one of the means to achieve influence and power, as well as to impress the society, where noble origin and land ownership were traditionally highly valued. Moreover, in conditions of small-scale production and market tightness, surplus funds were permanently forced to drift into land ownership. The economic risk of the merchants' profession added to their reasons for investing into this stable sphere. Using the debenture stock and mortgages of the representatives of the county nobility, purchasing run-down houses and overgrown land at a relatively low price, the merchants became the owners of manors, estates and land holdings, occupied with fields, meadows, pastures, forests, ponds, watermills and windmills, farms and housekeeping areas. The very structure of Adam Fraunceys's and John Pyel's possessions makes it possible to regard them as the early gentry of the XIVth century.

The article studies the social and value orientations of the London merchants in the 15th - 16th centuries, when the English society was on its difficult way of transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period. Using, first of all, the sources of personal origin (The Cely Letters, "The Life of John Isham") the author indicates new features of the merchants' self-conscience and social aspirations. Professionalism, wealth and respect in society are mentioned as the dominant parameters that determined the life of the London merchants. The fact that they intended to become famous and started to take care of their reputation is a vivid proof of a person's self-conscience awakening, never noticed before. Now a merchant's ideal is a "self-made" person, who came up in the world due to his diligence, prudence, business vitality, the ability to act in difficult situations and the art of learning on the experience of others. The author comes to the conclusion that the scale of the value priorities of the merchants met the demands of the spirit of renewal. It was clearly expressed in the humanist principles, supplemented by the Calvinist ethics, which meant the advocacy of active way of life (though within a strictly set frame), the justification of worldliness, purely secular ambitions and occupations. The article also shows that the richest merchants, being aware of their public significance, aspired to the level of the nobility, adhering to it in everyday life. The merchant community was distinguished for its sufficient mobility, due to which the sons' way of life could differ considerably from the fathers' occupations. A previous yeoman farmer or his descendants, having raised their position in town during several centuries (or even decades) could return to the rural scene, now as the representatives of the nobility.

Social life of several London merchants of the second half of the 14th - 16th centuries is considered in the article. Adam Fraunceys, John Pyel and brothers Gregory, John and Henry Isham were merchants who sold luxury. Using the material from various sources the author studies their origin, the ways of consolidating their positions in urban society, scales and forms of their involvement in town activities, interest in land purchasing, and social aspirations. She also traces the evolution of the merchants' social image during 250 years and shows its stable features. It is pointed out that town careers of future merchants, younger children of country gentry, began with apprenticeship in Mercers' company and primarily were based on family solidarity. Besides, integration of rural inhabitants into merchant society of the capital followed a certain marriage strategy: the heroes of this article married London merchants' daughters and widows. Matrimonial policy provided not only material security (a big dowry), but also contacts in the London world of business. On the whole it was characteristic of the 14th - 16th century mercers to be engaged in various commercial activities: trade, crediting, crown backing, and investing in property in towns and counts. At the same time the Isham brothers demonstrated a different, in comparison with the previous period, level and organizational forms of their activity setting up a family company within the Merchant Adventurers Company and being closely connected with qualitative changes that took place in production structure and trade in England of the second half of the 16th century. The author also shows that London merchants of the 14th - 16th centuries fully fitted a widely spread behavior pattern. Younger children of country gentry moved to town and very often succeeded in business taking up trade, financial transactions, and entrepreneurship and then came back home having a new status. They joined a wide layer of provincial gentry and participated in forming the local elite.

The article examines ethical and sociocultural installations and reference points of Isham brothers, who created a family business and were the members of the Merchant Adventures. The author shows, that the family, its interests and reputation, aspiration to receiving systematic and rather broad education, desire to keep a reputation and to become famous in centuries, and also observance of the Protestant principles of labor ethics was the most important part of system of values of merchants Isham.