A. D. I20I. ' 367 



adjacent fea, and feveral foreign furs, which infer fome trade with the 

 northern nations of Europe. [Brand's Hift. of Nezvcajlk, V. \\,p- 131-] 

 It mud have been a thriving place in the reign of Henry II to be able 

 to pay an annual rent of fifty pounds to the crown, as we find it did, 

 in terms of a charter of that king. The annual rent was now raifed 

 to fixty pounds; and the inhabitants, moreover, gave King John one 

 hundred marks and two palfreys for the renewal of their charter with 

 the confirmation of the liberties granted to them by Henry II. \Ma- 

 dox's Firma burgi, p. 54.] 



The king charged the abbat of Muckelney three marks of gold, or 

 thirty marks of filver, for giving him feifinc of his abbay. \Madox's 

 H'lft. of the excheq. r. 13 $ 8.] We thereby learn, that filver was now 

 valued in proportion to gold as ten to one. 



1202, January 6"" — King John, having occafion to fend two agents 

 to Rome, where no bufinefs could be forwarded without money, fur- 

 niflied them with a letter addrefled to all merchants, whereby he bound 

 himfelf to repay the fums advanced to his agents to the amount of five 

 hundred marks, at fuch time as fhould be agreed upon, to any perfoa 

 prefenting his letter together with the acknowlegement of his agents for 

 the fum received by them. And we find, that he repeatedly pracSifed 

 the fame method of borrowing money abroad in order to feed the infa- 

 tiable avarice of the nephews and other courtiers of the popes. \f'rynne''s 

 Hijl. of K. fohn, l^c. pp. 5, II.] In the preceding reign a company of 

 merchants of Placentia had advanced 2,125 iTfi^rks to the bifhops of 

 Anjou and Bangor, upon the faith of a fimilar letter of King Richard, 

 for the fervice of his nephew Otho king of the Romans (or of Ger- 

 many), which fum King John promifed (25"' Auguft, T199) to repay 

 them in four infl:allments in the courfe 6f two years. \Fcedera, V. i, p. 

 115.] As there is no mention of interefi: in any of thofe letters, it mufl 

 have been difcounted, when the money was advanced. This tranfac- 

 tion, the precife date of which is not expreifed, affords the earliefi: no- 

 tice I have found in any Englifh records of letters of credit, for fuch 

 they were to all intents and purpofes : and the tranfition from them to' 

 bills of exchange is fo natural and obvious, that we may believe they were 

 in ufe about the fame time, or very foon after, efpecially in Italy, where 

 there was more commerce than in any other part of Europe, and, 

 moreover, a prodigious fudion of money from every Chriftian country 

 in Europe, except the Greek empire, "into the ecclefiaftical coffers of 

 Rome. 



The fourth crufade, wherein the nobles of France were the principal 

 leaders, furnifhes fome fads illufirative of the maritime power of the 

 Venetians. The warriors of France, who had no fhipping of their own, 

 applied to Venice, Genoa, and Pifa, for tranlports fufficient to convey 

 to the Holy land 4,500 knights, 9,000 fquires, 20,000 foot foldiers, and 



