A. D. 1463. 677 



hitherto been done agamft authority ; and a part of the veflels, bringing 

 lalt, wheat, rye, or other corn, from beyond the fea ; or other grains, 

 garlick, onions, herrings, fprats, eels, whiting, plaice, cod, mackerel, 

 &c. were permitted to unload at Billingfgate. But ftill the greater 

 number were to proceed up to Queenhithe. [Stow's Survey, p. 682.] 

 This is apparently the origin of a legal market for fifli at Billingfgate. 



1464, January — King Edward owed ^^32,861 to the company of 

 merchants of the ftaple at Calais, for payment of which he afllgncd them 

 a yearly rate (or inftallment) out of the fubfidies of wool. {Cotton s 

 yibridgement, p. 6']%.'] 



The commencement of the Oriental trade of Florence about the year 

 1425 has been noticed. The Medici, a race of fuccefllve eminent 

 merchants (and the anceftors of many families of fovereign princes) 

 were, it is believed, deeply concerned in that trade. Cofmo de Medici 

 was the greatefl merchant of the age, or equaled only by Jacques Coeur 

 in France. In every part of Europe he had houfes ellablifhed for con- 

 dud;ing his vaft commerce, and his extenfive money concerns, whereby 

 he ferved all Europe with the accommodation of borrowing and remit- 

 ting. Nor were his agents lefs alliduous in collecling for him the trea- 

 fures of antient learning, and the choiceft productions of art, than in 

 procuring the rich merchandize of India ; for this illuftrious merchant, 

 who dedicated his riches to the fervice of mankind, was the mod: mu- 

 nificient, unaffuming, patron of arts, fciences, and literature. He em- 

 ployed his wealth and his literary treafures for the fervice of his coun- 

 try and his friends with fuch effedl, that, when Naples and Venice com- 

 bined againfl: Florence, he deprived them of refources for carrying on 

 the war, merely by calling in the vafl fums due to him in thofe dates ; 

 and by a manufcript of Livy, fent as a prefent to the king of Naples, 

 he conciliated his friendfhip. Nor were the politics of Italy only 

 governed by the conimercial operations of Cofmo : even the diftant 

 kingdom of England was affeded by the power of his pecuniary influ- 

 ence, and the fums, lent by his agents to Edward IV, amounting to 

 120,000 crowns, contributed in a great meafure to fupport him in his 

 conteil with the houfe of Lancafter. This truely-great man died, with 

 the juftly-merited title of father of his country, on the i" of Auguft 

 1464*. 



* For a more complete account of this great cd Uis money at lall. He ailo knew another of 



merchant, and for the authorities, fee Rnfcoe's Life Cofmo's agents, called Portunaiy, who -became 



of Lorcnxo de Metiici, his grandfon. See alfo Gii- fccurity for King Edivard to the duke of Bi'.r- 



l/on, Fi xii, /). 135. — and Coinings, L. \\\, c. 6. gundy for 50,000 crowns, and at another time for 



The later, after noticing the wonderful extent of 24,000. — Coiniiics's hint of the damage fullaincd 



the credit of his commercial boufes, as he himfelf, by delay of payment is fupported by a grant of 



had had occafion to fee them in France and Eng- King Edward, dalcd^o'" November 1466, wheiv- 



land, fays, that, to his knowlege, GnerarJ Quan- by it appears, that ;t'5'i;4= '9 = 'o "f ^1^^ money 



refe, one of Cofmo's agents, was the chief inltrn- lent him by Gerard Camzian (whom Comines calls 



ment in fupporting Edward IV by fuinifliing kim Qu^anvcfe) Hill remained due; for payment of 



at a time above i2c,ooo croivns, not much to the which Edward permitted liim to berd, cbck, and 



advantage of his principal, wt.o, however, recover- cli;an, any wool whatfoever, and export it, or any 



oth- 



er 



