47§ 



A. D. 1313. 



i'r,494 : 5 ; o flerling, from feven merchants of Lynnc, while they were 

 Lit North Bergen, for which they received no payment *. This merits 

 notice only as it fhows, that England had then forae cloth to fpare for 



exportation. The fifh were probably caught on the Norwegian coafi: 



But it would be tedious and difgufting to detail all the outrages and 

 enormities, which conftituted the chief mutter of the negotiations be- 

 tween the princes of Europe in thofe ages. [See Fadera, V. iii, pp. 3,95, 

 397, 400, 401. 449. 556, 566, 571, 577, 783.] 



The advocates for the antiquity ot the fociety, or company, of the 

 merchants of the Staple aflert, that they exiiled as a corporate body in 

 the 51"^ year of King Henry III. What is, perhaps, more eafily afcer- 

 tained, is, that in two letters from Edward II to Robert earl of Flanders, 

 both dated 15* February 1313^ it appears, that Richard Stury, mayor of 

 the merchants of England, had jufl returned from the earl's court, to which 

 he and Sir William of Deen had been fent as ambafladors, in order to 

 accommodate all differences between the fubjeds of both princes (not 

 between the princes), and to concert meafures for maintaining fi'iend- 

 fhip and amicable intercourfe. {Feeder a, V. Lii, p. 386.] In this year 

 we find a patent of King Edward for ordaining a certain place xipon the 

 continent as a ftaple for the merchants of England, and for defining the 

 liberties (or powers) veiled in their mayor : and there was alfo a fecond 

 patent foon after ' in favour of the mayor and merchants of the Stapled 

 [Rot. pat. fee. 6 Edzv. II, m. 5 ; ^nd prim. 7 Ediv. II, m. 18.] There was 

 moreover a charter, dated the 20'' of May in this year, wherein the 

 king fets forth, that, as the merchants, natives as well as foreigners, 

 made a practice of carrying the wool and wool-fells bought in his do- 

 minions to feveral places in Brabant, Flanders, and Artois, for fale, he, 

 in order to prevent fuch damages, had ordained, that all merchants, 

 whether natives or foreigners, buying wool and wool-fells in his do- 

 minions for exportation, fhould carry them only to one certain ftaple in 

 one of thofe countries, to be appointed by the mayor and community 

 of the fame merchants of his kingdom f, who might change the ftaple, 

 if they thought it expedient. He alfo granted to the mayor and council 

 of thofe merchants authority to punifh all merchants, natives or foreign- 

 ers, carrying wool or wool-fells to any other place, by fines, which ftiould 

 be levied by his officers for his ufe upon the property of the delinquents. 

 And he ordered this charter to be publiflied in all the maritime fliires 

 of England. [Hakluyt's Voiages, V. i, p. 142.] There can be no doubt, 

 that the perfon, called in the king's letters, the firft patent, and the 



* They had received no payment in June 1319, ported wool and wool-fells, only Englifli merch- 



wh<ii King Edward dunned the king of Norway ants (liould be members of the fociety. It appears 



for them. from a nmhitude of fadls and documents, thai ihc 



f * Per m.ijorcm tt communltatem eorinuleni mayor and community continued the llaple at Anl- 



« mcrcatorum de regno nollro ordinandam.' Thefe v,erp. 

 words inftr, that, though foreign merchants ex- 



