160 Corn and Corn Products Trades 



During this period the first English corn merchants arose. Mention 

 was made of some during the twelfth century.^ The Cambridge dis- 

 trict was the seat of many early exporters; many notices of them are 

 scattered through the Patent Rolls of the fourteenth century.^ They 

 shipped to the countries bordering the North Sea. Although they 

 dealt mostly in corn other wares are mentioned as fish, wool, ale, 

 cloth, etc. They appear to have had close connection with the gov- 

 ernment and filled many royal posts. In the minor towns of the 

 region they engaged corn factors who bought up and dispatched corn 

 to the seaports; for this purpose they had ships and boats, and handled 

 other goods for exchange. Whether these merchants did any retailing 

 in the port towns is uncertain; most probably they did. 



The Tudor corn policy in the sixteenth century was dictated by 

 the needs of London. The producing powers of England were not 

 competent to guarantee the metropolis an adequate supply of corn. 

 Hence the city favored the prohibition of corn exportations, except as 

 it was found from time to time that exports could be comfortably 

 spared. It does not seem that the statutory policy was more than the 

 expression of an ideal of the producing parts. When, according to 

 the act of 1554,^ the price of corn reached 65. M. the quarter, exporta- 

 tion was prohibited except as permitted by special royal hcenses 

 specifying in detail what amount might be exported by the licensed; 

 at any and all times when the price was less than this any Englishman 

 might export freely. In 1563 and 1593 these price limits were raised 

 to \0s. and 20^. respectively. But since these limits were so low the 

 free exportations of corn was really only permitted a very few years 

 of the century. During the first half of the seventeenth century the 

 limits were further raised'' but not enough at any time to permit much 

 exportation. The period, therefore, from 1500 to the Restoration 

 was one of importation rather than exportation; though some exports 

 were made they were occasional or under special license; and the 

 statutory corn policy favored the consuming classes, while parading 

 the ideal of the producers.-^ 



During this period the import trade was in the hands of Dutch 

 merchants. They procured corn in the Baltic regions and carried it 



1 Madox, I, 558. 



^Cal. Pat. RoUs. Ed. III. Vol. II, 415; III, 80; \II, 388; IX, 363; Rich. II, Vol. 

 III. 281. See also Cart. Mon. de Ram.. III. 141-151. 



3 1-2, Ph. & M., Cap. 5, sec. 7. 



' 1603-04 to 26s.M., 1623-24 to ils, and 1656 to 40^. 



'" For other views of this policy see such writers as Hasljach, 32-33, Schanz, I, 

 479, Faber, 87-89, and Cunningham, Growth. II, pt. I. 87. 



