268 Textiles and Textile Materials Trades 



merchants in London in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.^ 

 A further group were the Flemish merchants resident in England.^ 



Many of these wool-merchants became local or even national celeb- 

 rities. John Keyser was one of a great group of Newark, Nottingham, 

 merchants; he had frequent financial relations with Edward III, and 

 "combined with his trafific in wool the office of purveyor of wines to 

 the royal household.^ The Cely family were merchants of the staple 

 at London in time of Edward IV. They bought wool from the wool- 

 men of Northleach, Camden, and Chipping Norton and of Gloucester- 

 shire; they dispatched agents, sometimes, to these districts to buy up 

 the wool. At London they packed it up and dispatched it to Calais 

 to their agents there for sale. Their hardest competitors in the Cots- 

 wold districts were the Italian merchants.* It was the common 

 practice of these merchants to have agents abroad and resident there; 

 the closer contact gave a more effectual control of the trade at the 

 staples. In 1332 we find James Keyser, of Newark, Nottingham, 

 dwelling in Bruges and with him many other English merchants.^ 



The wool-merchant often combined wool-buying with other lines. 

 Instance has been given of Keyser who bought wine, and of Derby- 

 shire men who bought and sold lead. One Andrew We}^Tnan of South- 

 wark, a wool-merchant of large business, also did a considerable 

 leather business. In fact most of the Southwark fel-wool merchants 

 dealt in leather also.^ 



Wool Stapler. 



Staple, in connection with the textile materials, means the fiber of 

 any material used for spinning and is expressive of the character of 

 the material. A stapler was one who was employed in assorting wool 

 according to its staple. In connection with this assorting, the stapler 

 performed all the functions attaching to the jobber and merchant. 

 He had large warehouses and required a great capital. '^ But his 

 special and distinctive function consisted in breaking and assorting 

 wool, making it up into sortments fit for the manufacturer.^ With- 



1 V. C. H., Derby, II, 346. 

 2V. C. H., Nott. II, 342. 

 3 Ibid., 342-3. 



^ The Cely Papers, Camden Society, 3rd series, Vol. I, conlains much interest- 

 ing material relative to their operations. 

 5 V. C. H., Nott., II, 342. 

 «V. C. H., Surrey, II, 335. 

 '• Campbell, 199-200. 

 8 Ibid., 199-200: Smith, Complaints, 25. 



