296 Textiles and Textile Materials Trades 



Factor at Blackwell Hall. 



The relations of the clothier to Blackwell Hall and to the merchant 

 and draper underwent a decided and important change during the 

 Puritan regime and the early years of the Restoration. Before this 

 date, the Cloth-workers' Company had been the chief assistants of 

 the clothiers at the Hall; they mantled, folded and put in buckram 

 and packed the cloth sent or brought up by the clothier; if the 

 clothier could not stay imtil the market served him best he left his 

 cloths in the care of these clothworkers till some other market, pos- 

 sibly six to twelve months; hence sometimes they authorized the 

 clothworkers to sell the cloths left in their charge; and lastly, if the 

 clothier wanted credit it was either furnished to him by the cloth- 

 worker or this latter advised the merchant of the clothier's financial 

 responsibility.^ In 1635 the clothiers of Suffolk and Essex com- 

 plained to the Pri\r)^ Council against an order which was designed to 

 stop these clothworkers from acting as agents for the country clothiers 

 for selling cloths left with them. The order had been secured by 

 the drapers and merchants viz. "that no one should sell any woollen 

 cloths either by wholesale or by retail but themselves."^ 



These practices and services indicate the opportunity and functions 

 of a specialized class which established themselves in the business of 

 Blackwell Hall about 1660.^ They were known as factors and re- 

 ceived public recognition in the regulations of the Hall laid by 

 the Act of Common Council of 1678. These factors sprang from 

 various professions, having serv^ed apprenticeships to other trades, 

 and it was remarked that one could choose "a Factor from almost 

 any profession, an Oyl-man, a cloth-drawer, a Tobacconist, etc."^ 

 In 1677 the London Directory reported by name thirty-eight Black- 

 well Hall factors, none of whom were men of title, and who hved 

 mostly on Basinghall Street.'' The author of the Clothiers Complaint 



1 These were the conditions prevailing in the reign of the first James; see State 

 Papers, Dom., Jas. I, CXXXIII, No. 36, part of which is quoted in Unwin, Ind. 

 Org., 112-13. Compare also HajTies, View of the Present State, 88-9. 



2 S. P. Dom., Chas. I, CCLXXXII, 130; Acts of P. C, 26 Nov., 17 Dec. 1634, 

 13 Feb. 1635. 



^ The Worcester clothiers complained against the innovation of factors at Black- 

 well Hall in 1663, alleging that the regulation obliged them to stay longer in London, 

 interfered with their choice of agents, increased their hallage fees, etc. Cal. S. P. 

 Dom., 1663-4, 535. 



^"Clothiers Complaint," 4. 



* Gathered from the lists given in the "London Directory," 1677. 



