

CHAPTER VIII. 



FOREIGN TRADE AND COMMERCIAL ROUTES. 



I SHALL not pretend in the present chapter to do more 

 than comment on such facts as are supplied or suggested 

 in the accounts given in the second volume, as to the com- 

 modities procured from foreign countries in the period before 

 me ; and to state, chiefly from Sanuto, what was the machinery 

 by. which tropical produce was brought to English markets. 

 Much, I am aware, may be said by those who are deeply 

 versed in medieval antiquities, about the transmission of 

 articles, whose origin has been very remote, to the most un- 

 likely parts of the British islands j and many hypotheses have 

 been proffered as to the channels by which these commodities 

 have been furnished. 



Iron was produced in considerable quantities in Sussex and 

 Cumberland. The forests of the Wealden were gradually ex- 

 hausted by the process. Probably, too, similar woods were 

 devoted to the manufacture of the same metal from the 

 Cumberland ores. But much was imported from Spain, some 

 perhaps from Norway, to which we may refer the "ferrum 

 Normannicum" of vol. ii. p. 457. iii. Osemond iron, which is 

 frequently mentioned in the accounts, had also in all likeli- 

 hood a foreign origin. 



The best millstones were then probably, as now, procured 

 from the chert in the neighbourhood of Paris, and, as will 

 be seen below, the article was very costly. Several accounts 

 expressly state that these instruments were derived from 



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