142 The Merchants of the Staple, ^c. 



investigation has supported the correctness of these views will 

 form a subject for discussion in a future page. 



The Merchant Adventurers. 



" A third class of merchants who were called at first the * Fra- 

 ternity,' or ' Brotherhood ' of St. Thomas a Beckett, sprung up at 

 the close of the 13th century. They vt'ere afterwards — though not, 

 I believe, till the reign of Henry VII. — called ' Merchant Adven- 

 turers.' They are said to have arisen as early as 1296, from the 

 guild of mercers in London. They are distinguished from ' the 

 Merchants of the Staple,' in this respect — that they traded not in 

 wool and raw material, but in cloth, or the wool in its manufactured 

 state. These are said to have begun to trade in cloth towards the 

 close of the reign of Edward I. They obtained certain privileges 

 from John, Duke of Brabant, and fixed their staple or principal 

 market at Antwerp. Subsequent privileges conceded to them by 

 Louis, Count of Flanders, in 1358, took them to Bruges. Their 

 first charter was granted to them in 1406, when they were incor- 

 porated under the name of the ' Fraternity of Saint Thomas 

 a Beckett.' In the middle of the loth centurj'^ we find them again 

 at Antwerp, the trade brought thither by them laying the founda- 

 tion of the greatness of that city. It is necessary to bear in mind 

 their clistinctue character, in order to understand many of the enact- 

 ments contained in our statute books, and also several matters 

 connected with the gradual decay of the 'Merchants of the Staple,' 

 between whom and the ' Merchant Adventurers ' there was long 

 continued rivalry. 



Of these three classes of merchants, the first were foreigners, or 

 (as they are commonly designated) ' strangers ' or ' aliens ; ' when 

 naturalized in England, or enfranchised by royal charter or dona- 

 tion they are called 'denizens.' The other two classes consisted, 

 in the first instance at least, wholly of natives. In later times the 

 lines of demarcation between the several classes became much less 

 distinct, but still without remembering what they originally were, 

 we shall have no little difficulty in understanding man}' of the 

 earlier enactments concerning wool." 



