A. D. 1339. 525 



dyes for coining pennies, halfpennies, and farthings, had been ordered 

 from the mint in the Tower for Ireland, of which no notice is taken in 

 the prefent order. [Fadera, V. v,pp. 104, 113.] 



June — Among the mofl notable of King Edward's fliifts for getting 

 hold of money, for the fupport of his wars with France and Scotland, 

 may be reckoned his fcheme for a marriage between his fon, a child 

 juft ten yeare of age, and a daughter of the duke of Brabant, from whom 

 he immediately received ffty thou/and pounds Jlerling as the young lady's 

 portion, he obliging himlelf to return ^ 100,000, if the marriage fhould 

 not be compieted. [F(£dera,V.\, pp. 112,, i8i.] The marriage never 

 was completed ; and it merits notice in commercial hiftory, only as a 

 proof of the very flourifhing flate of the manufactures and trade of Bra- 

 bant, which enabled the prince of that country to lay down fuch a fum 

 of money ; a fum, though it was exceeded by what Edward himfelf co- 

 venanted to give with his own daughter to the prince of Spain, far great- 

 er in real effeftive value than is given with the daughters of any of the 

 modern kings of Europe. 



November 25''' — The liberty granted by the late adl, for carrying on 

 the woollen manufadlure in any part of the kingdom without impedi- 

 ment, feems to have been interpreted by the magiftrates of Briftol as re- 

 ftrided to foreigners ; or the ad: was fo far difregarded by them, that 

 they perfecuted Thomas Blanket and fome others of their own citizens, 

 who had provided machinery, and hired workmen, for fetting up a wool- 

 ten manufactory in that city, with unreafonable exadions. Such was 

 the difcouraging reception given to the woollen manufadure on its firfl 

 appearance in the center of the country which has fince become the 

 chief feat of it, till government fent orders to the mayor and bailifs of 

 Briflol to defift from molefling their fellow-citizens in their meritorious 

 undertaking. [Foedera,V. v, p. i^'].'] 



December 23*^ — The king ordered five lafts of red herrings to be pro- 

 vided for the ufe of his houfehold at Yarmouth, which has fo long been 

 famed for curing herrings in that manner ; and 5,000 ftock-fifh from 

 Bofton, at which port, and alfo at Kingllon upon Hull, thole filh were 

 then imported, whether caught by the Englifli feamen themfelves at 

 Iceland, or bought in that ifland or at the fair of Bergen in Norway, the 

 great market for the filh of the polar regions*. [Fa^dera, V. v,p. 146. 

 — Camdeni Britannia, p. 578. — Qlaus Magnus^ L. 21. J 



1340, February^ — ^The parliament granted the king the ninth part of 

 the lambs, the wool, and the corn, to be produced in the two next years, 



* It mud not be underftood, that this was the the king ordeied 500 ' murruz' from Blakenhetl). 



carlicd notice of flock-fifh in England. They Qnere, if moorfow's, and if tliey were then to be 



were a ciiftomary article of fhip's ilores at leall as found in confiderable quantities fo near London as 



early as the year i 290. See above, p. 436, note at Bhckheath P 

 *.—— Together wl'h the berruigs and ftock-fiih 



