588 



A. D. 1378. 



ed or light, to fell their merchandize freely, to load with wool, hides, 

 wool-fells, tin, lead, and other merchandize of the ftaple, and to carry 

 them to their own countries, on paying the cuftoms payable on goods 

 carried to the ftaple at Calais, and giving fecurity not to carry them to 

 the eaft countries*. [Stat, i, 2 Ric. I/, c. 3.] 



A further infraction of the ordinance of the ftaple was a permifTion 

 to merchants of Gafcoigne and England to carry to the king's friends in 

 Gafcoigne and alfo in Breft, which had been lately ceded to the king 

 by the duke of Bretagne, corn and other victuals, together with leather 

 gloves, purfes, caps, and fome other petty articles. {Cotton's Abridge- 

 ment, /. I57-] 



1379, March 6"" — Formerly when the kings of England borrowed 

 money, they got it chiefly from the clergy, becaufe they were almoft 

 the only people who had any money, the wealth of the nobles confifting 

 of lands and the produce of them with the fervices of their vafials, and 

 the commons being generally too poor to have any money to lend. The 

 loans, made by King Richard, fhow that a happy change in the circum- 

 ftances of the people had already begun to appear. In the firft year of 

 his reign he borrowed ' infinite thoufands of pounds from certain merch- 

 ' ants:' {Rot. pat. prim. 1 Ric. II, m. 12] and at this time we find in a 

 lift, evidently defective f, of 145 fubfcriptions, as we would now call 

 them, to a loan, that 55 of them were by fix bifhops, and by abbats, 

 priors, and others belonging to ecclefiaftical eftablifhments, eight of them 

 being for £100 each ; 74 by noblemen and gentlemen from ;^ioo down 

 to ;^2 if ; and 17 by the communities of cities and towns, as follows. 

 London ^5 ,000 O O Winchester ^40 O O Hadley ^50 



Gloucester 40 O O Brentwood 

 Bedford 20 O O Coggeshale 



Northampton 40 O O Cambridge 

 Cirencester 33 6 8 Maldon 

 Salisbury 100 O O Retford 

 {Fa;dero, V. \\\,p. 210. — Rot. pat. sec. 



* Genoa, Venice, &c. though fituated to the 

 caflward of England, were accounted we ftcrn coun- 

 tries, becaufe their (hips paffed the well parts of 

 France and England in coming to the later. The 

 Netherlands and the countries adjacent to the Bal- 

 tic fca were the eaft countries. This a£l permits 

 Etiglilh wool to be exported to Spain. How the 

 times are altered ! 



f 1 call it dtfeftivc, becaufe we may be alFured, 

 that no bifliop or earl could excufe himfelf from 

 contributing on fuch an occafion, and many towns, 

 of more importance than tbofe whicii appear, are 

 omitted. 



% Several of the fubfcriptions are by two or 

 more pcrfons conjundtly ; but, as they are not dif- 

 tinguilhed as merchants or by any profeffioiral ad- 

 dition, we are not warranted to fuppoii. them part- 

 ners in trade. 



In the year 1346 there was a loan, not by fiib- 



10 

 40 



66 



40 

 33 

 o 



O S'.Edmundsbury 33 

 O O Alderton and 7 

 13 4 Baudsey, Suffolk 5'*'' 

 O O Ipswich 40 



6 8 Bristol §. 666 



Ric. J I. m. 17.] 



fcription, but by prcfcriptlon, the king fending 

 his mandate to each perfon to advance fuch a fum 

 as he thought proper to order. Of 89 lenders 19 

 fcem to be laymen, one of whom, John of Cherle- 

 ton of London (apparently the mayor of the 

 merchants of the ilaple, and the only one in the 

 hll who can be fuppoftd a citizen, merchant, or 

 trader) was charged with ^^1,000, by much the 

 largeft fum in the hll. On that occafion the towns 

 were not required to advance money but to furnilh 

 prefcribed numbers of men. \_FaJera, V. v, p^. 



49'. 493-] 



J To a lefs general loan in the year 1377 the 

 city of lirillol fubfcribed £621 : 13 :4; Robert 

 Spiccr, a merchant of 15rilloI, ,^45 ; and fome 

 other laymen, very confiderable funis. The arch- 

 bidiop of Canterbury on that occafion fubfcribed 

 /^333 : 6 : 8, and now only ^100. [Fadcra, V. 

 Nil, /.I 77.] 4 



