A. D. 1437- 651 



merchants) in England. But the king would not agree to it. [Cotton's 

 Abridgement, p. 616.] 



March 22" — The commiflloners of King Henry fettled a treaty with 

 thofe of the grand mafler of Pruflia, the cities of Lubeck and Ham- 

 burgh, and the Hanfe towns, whereby the antient privileges were con- 

 firmed on both fides. The merchants of Pruflia and the Hanfe towns 

 were exempted from the jurifdi6lion of the admiral of England, and were 

 indulged with an option of having any caufes, wherein they fliould be 

 concerned, tried with difpatch, and without the buflle and formality of 

 a law-fuit, by two or more judges to be appointed by the king : and a 

 fimilar mode of trial was flipulated for the caufes of Englifh merchants 

 in their countries. There being Hill 19,2747 Englifh nobles unpaid of 

 the fum fettled in the reign of Henry IV as due to the Pruflians, (fee 

 above, p. 623) it was agreed that King Henry fhould pay it off by an- 

 nual inflallments and aflignments of the cuftoms upon their goods. It 

 was flipulated on both fides, that in cafe of any depredation at fea, the 

 inhabitants of the port, from which the piratical vefTel failed, fliould be 

 obliged to make compenfation, agreeable to an ordinance of King Ed- 

 ward, and that fufhcient fecurity to that efFed: fhould be given before 

 any armed vefTel fhould go out of port. \Foedera, V. x,/>. 666.] 



A politico-commercial poem, called the Libell of EngliJJj policie, writ- 

 ten about this time *, gives the following view of the commerce of 

 Europe. 



The exports of Spain confifled of figs, raifins, baflard wine, dates, li- 

 quorice, Seville oil, grain, Caflile foap, wax, iron, wool, wadmole, fkins 

 of goats and kids, fafFron, and quickfilver, which were all fhipped for 

 Bruges, the great Flemifh emporium. Of thefe wool was the chief ar- 

 ticle. In return the Spaniards received fine cloth of Ypres, which is 

 noted as fuperior to that of England, cloth of Curtrike (or Courtray), 

 much fuflian, and linen f . — The Flemings could not make good cloth 

 of the Spanifli wool by itfelf, and were obliged to mix it with the Eng- 

 lifh, which was the chief fupport of their manufacture, and without 

 which, indeed, they could not poflibly carry it on, or fupport their 

 numerous population, their country not producing food fuflicient for 

 one month in the year. 



With Portugal the Englifli had confiderable intercourfe, and ufed to 

 make voyages to it. The commodities were wine, ofay, wax, grain, figs, 

 raifins, honey, cordovan, dates, fait, hides, See. 



• * The poem mentions the precipitate retreat of end of 1436 or in 1457, in wliich year Sigifmund 



the Flemings from Calais, which was in July 1436, died. 



and the lols of Harflew, which Hakluyt has dated \ It is neccffary to remember that Spain at this 



in his margin in 1449. But if he has rightly given time coniained feveral kingdoms, often at war 



the anthor's text, where he fays, the emperor Si- among thcmfclves. The trade here dcfcribed is 



gifmund ' yet rii^neth' (for in the Harlcian manu- apparently that of Caftile. Catalonia pofTcfred 



fcript it 19 written ' reigiied') that lofs of Hardew flourifhing manufaflures in wool, cottor., linen, 



mull be the capture of it by the French in 1432 ; filk, &c. 

 and the poem muft have been written in the kter 



4N2 



