A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



lost over £30,000 by the bankruptcies of 

 merchants during the crisis of 1622. 1 



Supposing that the cloth is finished, delivered 

 to the exporter and honestly paid for, we may 

 now follow it to its destination over sea. In 

 the reign of Elizabeth there were about a dozen 

 merchants who exported cloth among other 

 products of Suffolk, and brought back foreign 

 commodities in exchange. Exactly a dozen were 

 put on their oath before the bailiffs in 1575 as 

 to whether they had, between 22 August, 1569, 

 and 1 May, 1573, infringed the Act of Restraint 

 prohibiting trade with the Spanish Netherlands. 

 All of them replied with a general negative, but 

 oneor two admitted exceptions. Robert Osborne 

 admits that in April, 1573, being bound to 

 Memden with certain cloths, he was forced to 

 put into Carsel, Holland, and so went up to 

 Enkhuisen and sold eight cloths costing 

 £28 ioj. yd., for the return of which he had 

 14 cwt. Holland fish to the same value. Robert 

 Barker admits that as he passed from Hamburg 

 to Antwerp in 1570 or 1572 he bestowed at 

 Antwerp about £5. John Barker says he 

 received through Hamburg certain growgraynes 

 and taffetas which his servant sent in 1569 value 

 £t, and bought foreign cloths in 1570 value £8 

 or £10. Among the merchants who made no 

 exceptions to their general denial were John 

 More and Ralph More. 2 



The depositions taken concerning the oper- 

 ations of some of these merchants at the time of 

 the stoppage of trade give a sufficiently clear 

 notion of the extent and nature of the Ipswich 

 export trade in Suffolk cloth, and of the business 

 methods used by those who carried it on. Robert 

 Barker of Ipswich, aged thirty, declares on oath 

 that in September, October, and November, I 568, 

 he was in Antwerp acting as factor for John 

 More of Ipswich, merchant, and sold divers short 

 fine coloured cloths, some at £10 Flemish, others 

 at £10 55., £10 5*. 8d. y £10 10*., £12, and 

 £12 105. He also sold ten long Suffolk cloths 

 at £14, £15 ios., and £16 10s. He declares 

 also that John More had in Antwerp from 

 January until July of the same year various sorts 

 of short whites, some of which sold at £5 9 

 Flemish the pack, some at £60, some at £61, 

 some at ££>2, some at £65, some at £67. 

 Robert Barker likewise declares that in October 

 and November of the same year he sold for 

 himself and his partner W. Cardinal of East 

 Bergholt, merchant, in Antwerp, divers fine short 

 and long coloured Suffolk cloths, the prices of 

 the short cloths varying from £10 to £12 ios., 

 and those of the long cloths from £1$ 10s. to 

 £ij. Moreover, in December he bought in 

 Antwerp and shipped in a Flemish hoy two sacks 

 of hops on behalf of John More which was 

 seized by the Spanish authorities, and one sack 



1 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cxxviii, 67. 

 'Ipswich Dep. Bk. 17 Eliz. Apl. 25. 



of hops, a hogshead of flax and seventeen ballots 

 of woad for himself and partner. The authorities 

 also seized two pieces of mackado at 1 3;. ^d. 

 the piece, in John More's packhouse at Antwerp, 

 and one piece of Norwich worsted value £2 

 Flemish, belonging to Barker and his partner. 3 



In the same month John Stork, aged twenty- 

 three, prentice to Ralph More of Ipswich, 

 merchant, made a deposition to the following 

 effect. In September, 1568, More consigned 

 by the Lion of Ipswich twenty-seven broad 

 cloths to a merchant of Vigo named Cotton. 

 John Stork went along with the cloths and saw 

 them delivered to Cotton to be sold on his master's 

 behalf. His master also entrusted him with the 

 collection of two debts owing by Spanish 

 merchants, amounting to 47 and 275 ducats 

 respectively. Cotton owed More 156 ducats 

 for four fine cloths which he had sold on his 

 behalf, and had engaged to pay at the next 

 vintage. While Stork was in Vigo, his master 

 wrote him instructions to demand of Cotton in 

 what state things stood and for a return of moneys 

 received. Whereupon Cotton answered that all 

 he had of More's was arrested to the king's use. 4 



A further piece of evidence as to the quantity 

 of cloth exported is afforded by the deposition of 

 John Barker, who in 1560 was fined and im- 

 prisoned for disregarding an ordinance of the 

 town, that all cloth should be taken to the Cloth 

 Hall before exportation. During the two or 

 three years since the ordinance was made, lie 

 admitted having shipped more than 1,000 cloths. 6 

 Besides the trade done with Spain and the 

 Netherlands, there was a great deal of Suffolk 

 cloth sent to more distant countries. We learn 

 from a statute of 1523, that Vesses, otherwise 

 called set cloths, of divers colours are made in 

 Suffolk to be worn in far countries and not in 

 England. These were exempted, as they had 

 already been in 1487, from the regulation requir- 

 ing that cloth should not shrink more than a 

 certain amount when wet. They were of small 

 price, not above 40J. a cloth, and they did not 

 hold the length or breadth when they were wet, 

 'which the buyers know well when they buy 

 them, so therein is no deceit.' 6 They corre- 

 sponded in fact to the cheap cottons and shoddies 

 sent out nowadays to the African market, and 

 were largely exported to Barbary and Muscovy. 

 In 161 3 the Muscovy Company was said to 

 export 2,500 cloths yearly, nine-tenths of which 

 were finished and dyed in Suffolk. 7 



The elaborate code regulating the cloth manu- 

 facture which was enacted in I 5 5 I , and embodied 

 the recommendations of a Royal Commission 

 representative of all branches of the trade, 



3 Ipswich Dep. Bk. 14 Eliz. Apl. 7. 



4 Ibid. 14 Apl. 5. 



* Exch. Dep. 3 Eliz. 3 East. 3. 



6 Stat. 14 and I 5 Hen. VIII, cap. 1 1. 



' S.P. Dom. Jas. I, lxxii, 70. 



260 



