TRADE AND MARKETS. 147 



secure a balance of cash on every bargain. The ordinance of 

 the staple had this end in view, and the king's exchanger or 

 one of his deputies was required to watch the sales. But either 

 from lack of courage or lack of skill no successful attempt was 

 made to stop the great efflux of money to the Papal Court and 

 to non-resident foreign ecclesiastics who were quartered on 

 English benefices. 



Corn could be exported only by licence of the Crown, and 

 this licence was not very readily granted. But it had been 

 temporarily granted in Parliament in 1394, a time when prices 

 were very low. Similarly low prices in 1435 and 1426 led to 

 the grant of a similar provision. But in 1438, when wheat was 

 very dear, nearly at famine prices, the king refused permission 

 to allow any shipment of corn, even in the rivers, and on pre- 

 tence of distributing such produce as there was where it was 

 needed, in fear, it seems, lest English food should be exported 

 in order to meet continental want. But in 1435, when wheat 

 was about at an average, permission had been given to export 

 wheat and barley, saving the king's customs. On the other 

 hand, the Act 3 Edward IV, cap. 2, prohibits the importation 

 of corn, unless the price of wheat reaches 6s. %d., of rye 4^., of 

 barley 3^. l It is almost superfluous to add that our forefathers 

 viewed the trade of the corn-dealer with great suspicion, and 

 especially such dealers as were suspected of forestalling, re- 

 grating, or otherwise engrossing. Their legislation was of a 

 piece with that which prohibited the export of the precious 

 metals, and though the control was generally nugatory for the 

 end proposed, and occasionally brought about the mischief 

 which they intended to obviate, the object was to save the 

 country from scarcity, which they conceived might be brought 

 about by unpatriotic exportation and by commercial greed 2 . 



The Parliaments of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 



1 This tariff is re-enacted i, 2 Philip and Mary, cap. 5. 



2 The motive which led Parliament (3 Hen. VI, cap. 2) to prohibit the importation 

 of living sheep to Flanders was mainly to protect the revenue derived from wool. By 

 1 8 Hen. VI, cap. 3, cheese and butter, as being perishable articles, could be always 

 exported without licence. 



I. 1 



