CHAPTER X. 



WOOL AND HIDES. 



I HAVE commented more than once in the preceding 

 pages, and in my first volume, on the importance of English 

 wool, both as a matter of commerce, finance, and diplo- 

 macy, on the singular position which it occupied in the 

 economy of medieval Europe, and on the numerous varieties 

 of quality which were recognised, as we should say in modern 

 times, by local brands. The latter fact is curiously illus- 

 trated from a petition presented by the Commons in 1454, in 

 which no less than forty-four qualities of English wool are 

 designated and priced, the prayer of the petition being 

 that these several qualities should not be exported except 

 at the prices assigned to each in the schedule annexed 

 to the petition. The schedule is printed in Vol. iii, p. 704. 

 It appears that the price of wool was very low at this time, 

 and that the Commons were convinced that to stint the supply 

 to the foreign merchant would raise the price. They probably 

 had in view the encouragement of English weaving, for it 

 does not appear that beyond the light customs exacted on 

 exports and imports, customs more nearly analogous to harbour 

 and police dues than to imposts levied for the sake of revenue, 

 any duties were put upon English cloths on their exportation, 

 while heavy export duties were habitually imposed on wool, 

 and, as I have said, were unquestionably borne by the foreign 

 consumers. 



Similar but far lighter dues were imposed on exported 

 hides. That the trade in this raw material was more precarious 

 than that in wool might be anticipated, and is illustrated by 



