A. D. 1458. 673 



meafures of the ftandard fliould alfo be kept in Aberdeen, Perth, and 



Edmburgh Several ads were pafled for improving the agricuhure of 



the country, for prohibiting the capture of fifli in improper feafons and 

 by illegal engines, for deflroying wolves and birds of prey, and for pre- 



ferving the breed of hares and rabbits Laftly, the parliament wifely 



ordered, that copies of their ads Ihould be taken by the fliirrefs and the 

 reprefentatives of burghs, and be duely publiflied throughout the king- 

 dom, that the people might not be ignorant of the laws, by which they 

 vsrere to be governed*. [^£??j- y^ir. //, fc. 73, 74, 75, 78, 82, 91-99, 

 loi, 102.] 



At this time the Scots entered into a friendly treaty with the citizens 

 of Embden, which, like that with Flanders, was to be in force for one 

 hundred years f. [Left. Hiji. Scot. p. 488.] A treaty with a commer- 

 cial city could only regard matters of commerce. 



The attention of the Scottifli government to the interefls of com- 

 merce is further manifefted by a grant of duties upon vefTels for repair- 

 ing the harbour of Dundee, a port advantageoufly fituated at the mouth 

 of the Tay :j:. [Skene de verh.fign. vo. FercoJla.'\ 



About this time George Faulau and John Dalrymple, merchants of 

 Scotland, and undoubtedly eminent in their profeffion, were frequently 

 employed, in conjunction with the clergy, the only men of leaiTiing, 

 and the nobles, in emballies and other public negotiations by King 

 James IT. [Fcedera, V. 'u, pp. 213, 277, 389, 400, 403, 421. — Adsjac, 

 11, cc. 34, 72.] 



Thefe various notices, when added to the zeal for the commerce and 

 improvement of the country appearing in the ads of the parliament of 

 Scotland, infer that the country mufl at this time have enjoyed fome 

 degree of commercial profperity. 



This year all the Genoefe merchants in London were imprlfoned, and 

 condemned to pay 6,000 marks. The reafon affigned was faid to be 

 the injury done to England by plundering a fhip belonging to a merch- 

 ant of Briftol, called Sturmyn, who was trading to various ports of 

 the Levant and other parts of the Eaft, on the pretence that he had 

 growing plants of pepper and other fpices onboard, which he propofed 

 to propagate in England. \Fabyan s Chronycle^ V. ii, f. ccii b.] Eng- 



• Some of the aCls of this parliament arc repe- burgh benorth the Scottifli fca (Firth of Forth), 

 titions of ads of James I, which thence appear not The port duties were, iq/"on every fliip, ^J on 



to have been duely enforced : but that need not every crayer, bufs, barge, and balinger, i/"on every 



fiirprife us, when we fee finiilar repetitions com- fercofl, and 6 pennies on every large boat, as copied 



mon in the afts of the parliament of England, a by Skene from the original record. Farccoft oc- 



country more advanced in civilization. curs as a kind of vefTcl in England, \^Fai!era, F'. 



f This, like the Flanders treaty, is only known xi,/>. 44] and is apparently the fame with fercq/t, 



from its renewal in the year 1537. one or olhci being enoneoully tranfcribed from the 



X Hardyng, a contemporary Englifh traveler in record, 

 Scotland, [_/". 236 b] calls Dundee the principal 



Vol. L 4 Q 



