4id A. D. 1258. 



fold for : and, as if that arbitrary proceeding had not been fufficiently 

 oppreffive, the importers were often obliged to go without any payment 

 at all *. The confequence was, that many Englifh merchants were ruin- 

 ed, and many of the foreign merchants about this time gave over trad- 

 ing to England, [ylnn. Burton, p. 400.] An exemption from the prif- 

 age of wines is one of the antient privileges of the city of London f. 



Auguft 26"" — The principal citizens (' prohombres') of Barcelona 

 having compofed a body of maritime laws for the regulation of veflels 

 in the merchant iervice, it was now confirmed by James I, king of 

 Aragon and count of Barcelona. It confifts of twenty-one chapters, 

 containing rules to be obferved by the owners and commanders of veflels, 

 the fcribes or clerks who were fworn to keep fair accounts between the 

 owners and the freighters, the mariners, and the merchant paflengers ; 

 for lot\ding, flowing, and difcharging, the cargo ; for the arms to be 

 carried by every vefTel, and alfo by the feamen, who were to find theirs 

 at their own expenfe ; for the affiftance to be given by one vellel to an- 

 other when coming to an anchor ; and for a council to be eledled in 

 every vellel, whofe decrees fhould be binding upon the owner, com- 

 mander, and merchants, in all matters concerning the common intereil 

 of the vefTel and cargo. [Cbarta ap. Capmauy, Mef/i. hijl. de Barcelona, 

 V. ii, p. 23.] This code, apparently formed upon the model of that 

 of Rhodes, is faid by the Spanifh writers to be the moft antient body 

 of maritime laws in Europe: \Capma71y, V. i, com. p. 233] but it feems 

 •probable that thofe of Amalfi may claim the priority %• 



1259 — Kii'ig Henry, at the requeft of his brother the emperor, grant- 

 ed a charter to the merchants of Germany, who had a hall or fadlory, 

 called the 'Teutonic gildball (' Gildhalla Teutonicorum') in London, where- 

 in he promifed to maintain them in the liberties and free cuftoms, which 

 they had enjoyed in his ovvn reign and thofe of his predecelTors, through- 

 out his whole kingdom. \Foedera Anglia, V. u,p. 161 — Hakli/yt's Voioges, 

 V. i, p. 132.] Unfortunately we are not informed, when thofe mer- 

 chants firfl occupied their fadory in London, which, by this (apparent- 

 ly the earliefl: extant §) authentic document of their privileges, they ap- 

 pear to have pofTefled for fome time. It feems moft probable, that the 

 afTociation, now called by the general appellation of merchants of Ger- 



* The promlfe inferted in the charier to the lanced by the duties on the importation of wine 



merchant! of Lubi'ck in the preceding year, that being heavier in London than in the ont-ports. 

 no part of their property (liould he taken from J The laws of Olcron, according to the ge- 



thenr. wii l!o\it their conCent, was intended to guard iieral opinion, were alfo tarh'er. But the Spanilli 



againll this abute. writers, and (as I have already obferved) at leall 



f Thomas Chancer (who is believed to have one French writer, aflert that they are copied from 



been the fon of the famoup poet) being chief thofe of Barcelona. 



butler to King Heniy IV, made a complaint that J If they had got any earlier charter from 



the citizens of London abufed their privilege by Henry, or any preceding king of England, it ccrt- 



permiftinc^ wines helongir..'^ to others to be entered ainly could not be produced, when the German 



in their names, in onier to evade t;ie prifnge. merchants obtained confirmations of their privi- 



'[Collon's /IbridgcmenI of iht records, p. 47').] In leges from Edward II and Edward III. 

 the prefcnt day the exemption from prifage is ba- 



