A. D. 1313. 479 



charter, the mayor of the merchants, was the fame who is called the mayor 

 ofthejlaple in the fecond charter * ; and that the origin of the company 

 of the merchants of the Staple may mofl truely be dated in this year f . 

 The inflitution of the company, or perhaps, more properly fpeaking, 

 community, who conftituted fuch a fociety at Antwerp as the merch- 

 ants of the German gildhall did in London, infers that the merchants 

 of England now began to fee the propriety of taking into their own 

 hands at leafi a Ihare of the adive commerce of their own raw materi- 

 als. This was a fiift ftep towards obtaining the full benefit to be deriv- 

 ed from poflelling valuable materials by firll working them up, and 

 then exporting them in a manufactured ftate. 



December 3'' — King Edward, at the requeft of his filler the countefs 

 dowager of Holland, granted, with great formality, to the burgeiTes and 

 merchants of Dordrecht (or Dort), the capital of Holland, an exemp- 

 tion, during the life of the countefs, for themfelves and their property, 

 from being arrefled on account of any debt or crime, unlefs they them- 

 felves, ox fome per/on of their community, were principal debtors, or fure- 

 ties, or charged as guilty, on condition that they fhould carry on fair 

 trade and pay the due cuftoms. And that fo great an indulgence might 

 not be abufed, they were required to bring an indenture (or manifefl) 

 of their cargoes, with the value appraifed by merchants of character and 

 the magi/lrates of the city, and alfo by the procurator of the countefs 

 and her prelent hufband the earl of Hereford and Eflex, and fealed with 

 the fea) of the city and that of the earl and countefs %. [^Fcedera, V. iii, 

 p. 458.] 



13 1 4 — The king of France wrote to King Edward, that formerly he 

 had granted permillion to the Englifh importers of wool, who had their 

 flaple at Antwerp, to bring their goods to his town of S'. Omer's, and 

 hold their ftaple there, for which purpofe he had given them ample li- 

 berties and privileges, hoping that confiderable benefit would redound 

 to hirafelf and his fubjeds : but that now they gave up carrying their 

 wool to the annual fairs at his town of Lifle, as they ufed to do when 

 their flaple was at Antwerp, and alfo enticed other merchants to do the 

 fame, whereby his fubjed:s fuffered great lofs. Therefor he now re- 

 quefted his fon-in-law to induce his fubjedts, and, if neceflary, to com- 



* I have already had occafion to obfcrve, that zcaloufly celebrates, I do not pretend to judge, 



ftrift unitorniity of titles or appellations was not Plis work, being written in the bitter fpirit of 



attended to in tho'^e day?. controverfy, mull be read (if any body will now- 



■ ■\ Ge.ard Malynes, in his Caiier of the c'lrck of a-days take the trouble of reading it) with great . 



eommerce, fays, that the merchants of the Staple in allowance for his partlalit)-. 



the reign of Queen Eli'^ibeth produced proof, that J A finiilar iiidnlgcnee was granted to the fac- 



there was a wool-iaple and officers belonging to it tors and fcrvants of the bifhop of Nidaros (Dron- 



iii the reign of Henry III. But whether that tlieim) in Norway, wlicn he hecaine a merchant, 



vcuid prove tlie anticpiitv of that company of and enga^eil in the trade to England in the vear. : 



Englilli merchants of the Staple, wliofe high an- 1316. \Vxticra, K i'i, />. 551.] 

 tiquity, dignity, and ii.''efulnefs to the flate, he fo 



