412 A. D. 1261. 



fea, which conftitutes the harbour of Conftantinople. That town was 

 wholely refigned to them ; and they were alfo favoured with exemption 

 from paying cuftoms and with fome other privileges : and to thefe ad- 

 vantages the lituation of their town and their naval power foon enabled 

 them to add, with or without the approbation of the emperor, the com- 

 mand of the narrow entrance of the Black fea, and confequently to 

 monopolize the commerce of all the countries which furround it, toge- 

 ther with that branch of the Indian trade, which was conduded by 

 river navigation and land carriage to the eafl end of it. 



It was enadted by the barons, that the wool of England fhould be 

 manufailured at home inftead of being fold to foreigners, and that all 

 perfons fhould wear woollen cloth made within the kingdom, and avoid 

 every fuperfluous extravagance in drefs *. [^IV. Hermngford^ L. iii, c. 27,] 

 At this time the Englifh were exceedingly exafperated againft all foreign- 

 ers on account of the king's glaring and immoderate partiahty to his 

 foreign relations and favourites, whereby a great proportion of the lands 

 and wealth of England was thrown into their hands. But it was yet too 

 foon to exclude the fuperior manufactures of foreigners, or to prohibit 

 the wool from going to the befl market. 



1262 — Some German writers fay, that the Hanfe aflbciation about 

 this time made choice of Bruges in Flanders to be a ftation for their 

 trade, and an entrepot between the coafts of the Baltic and the Medi- 

 terranean, a voyage from the one fea to the other, and back again, be- 

 ing too arduous an undertaking to be accomplifhed in one feafon. It is 

 moreover faid, that the advantages of llorage, commiffion, &c. conti- 

 nued from this time to enrich the inhabitants of Bruges, till the em- 

 peror Frederic III was provoked by an infult put upon his fon to block 

 up their port, whereby the Hanfe merchants were obliged to transfer 

 their commerce to Antwerp. [Bertii Rer. Germ. L. iii,/. 28.] But it 

 may be doubted, whether the Hanfe aflbciation, tinder that name, was yet 

 in exiflence, or if there were any maritime cities yet added to the con- 

 federacy entered into by Lubeck and Hamburgh in the year 1241. 



1264 — There ftill remained fo much of the fpirit of antient barbarifm 

 and ferocity in Europe, that the fpoils of rapine were often preferred 

 to the flow acquifitions of honeft induflry by tliofe, who felt themlelves 

 powerful enough to be robbers. Piracies were frequently committed 

 upon the fea, where the perpetrators thought themlelves fure of im<- 

 punity by the abfence of any fuperior controlling power, and more 

 efpecially when anarchy and public convullions in the country ihey be- 



• This law is dated by Heminj^ford, the carlicd aiiotl.cr in the year 1271. Yet Edward III is rje- 



aullior who mentions it, in 1261 ; and he afeiibcs ncrally fiippofed the lirll Englid) king who cnad- 



it to l)ic parliament of Oxford, v.hicli, accordinjj ed fuch a l,;w. His law has the advantage of i)e- 



to the other liiiloiians, was held in tlie year 1258. ing more generally known than the others. But 



Jtisthc firft law piohibiting the exportation of all of them \\ ere equally intlledlve. 

 wool aud the in.porlation of cloth. We fliall fee 3 



