78 ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND, 



the comparative wealth of York, Norwich, and Bristol. It 

 should be remembered perhaps that this was the time in 

 which the rich Canyngs 1 of Bristol built the finest church of 

 the fifteenth century, that of St. Mary RedclifTe near Bristol. 



Coventry appears as the fourth city in the kingdom, and 

 considerably above any of the remaining six. Now all these 

 towns, but one, may have been sea-ports to the small vessels 

 which traded at the time. Lincoln probably had access to 

 the sea by the Witham ; Nottingham, possibly, the poorer 

 of the two, by the Trent. But Coventry was essentially an 

 inland town. Now it is certain that at this time there existed 

 a very considerable and varied home trade in Coventry, the 

 principal manufacture being cloth and caps. It is said to have 

 had a population of more than 10,000 (my authority is a memorial 

 addressed by John Hales to the Protector Somerset) before 

 the Reformation, which sank (according to the same authority) 

 to 3000 after that event. It possessed very numerous trade 

 guilds, with very large possessions, which of course it lost 

 when the Protector Somerset had his way, and which were 

 again endowed by an opulent merchant at the beginning of 

 Elizabeth's reign, who is said to have bought what he supposed 

 was a cask of steel in Spain (Bilboa iron was often passed off 

 on the English buyer for steel, and was therefore denounced 

 by an act of Edw. VI), and finding, for the story varies, that 

 his venture was ingots of silver or bags of cochineal, de- 

 termined to enrich his native town by his fortuitous wealth. 

 Perhaps some light may be thrown on the Coventry contingent 

 by the fact that, in 30 Henry VI, the king by charter made 

 Coventry a county by itself, adding seventeen hamlets and two 

 parts of hamlets to the area of the city liberties. Coventry 

 was strongly attached to the Lancastrian party, was the place 

 of Henry's occasional residence, was the scene of that Parlia- 

 ment which proscribed the whole party of York and really led 



1 One of this family, the brother of the Bristol merchant, was Lord Mayor of London 

 a few years later than the time on which I am commenting, and was the person to whom 

 Pecok wrote. 



