7o8 A. D. 1487. 



' grounded in ufury,' hov/ever difguifed under the name of new chevyf- 

 ance, dry exchange, &c. by which the lender was to have more or lefs * 

 • for the ufe of his money, and impofed a fine of ^100 on the offenders, 

 befides committing to the church the corredion of their fouls. \_A6is 3 

 Hen. VII, c. s] 



The magiflrates of London, in order to oblige the people to refort to 

 the city for all their purchafes, had made an ordinance, that no citizen 

 fhould carry goods for fiile to any fair or market out of the city. The 

 affortment of goods in London appears to have been fo commanding, 

 that thofe interefted in the fairs of Salifbury, Briflol, Oxford, Cambridge, 

 Nottingham, Ely, Coventry, and other places, and alfo tlie people of 

 the country in general, were alarmed, and reprefented to parliament the 

 deflrudion of the fairs, and the great hardfliip of being obliged to travel 

 to London to procure chalices, books, veftments, and other church or- 

 naments, and alfo viduals for the time of Lent, linen cloth, woollen 

 cloth, brafs, pewter, bedding, ofmond, iron, flax, wax, and other ne- 

 celTaries. The London ordinance was annulled ; and the citizens were 

 permitted to go with their goods to the fairs and markets in every part 

 of England, [c. 9.] In this aft we have a good pidlure of the inland- 

 trade of England. 



The fhearmen, fullers, and others concerned in the clothing trade, 

 reprefented, that the acl of 7 Edward III, againfl exporting woollen yarn 

 and unfulled cloth, had not provided againfl cloth being exported with- 

 out being rowed and fhorn. For the encouragement of thofe trades, 

 the parliament enaded, that no cloths fliouldbe carried out of the coun- 

 try till they were barbed, rowed, and fliorn, except thofe called itjfes, 

 rnys. Jailing cloths, and others fold at or under 40/; \c. 1 1.] 



At this time the commercial intercourfe between Florence and Egypt, 

 which began in the time of Cofmo de Medici, was greatly extended and 

 improved under the direction, and by the example, of his grandfon Lor- 

 enzo. So highly was this illuflrious merchant eiteemed by the fultan of 

 Egypt, that he fent an embaffy to him (a mark of refped: very feldoni 

 beftowed by Mohamedan princes on the moft powerful Chriflian fover- 

 eigns) vvith magnificent prefents, among which were a fine bay horfe, 

 probably an Arabian, baliam, civet, lignum aloes, large vales of por- 

 celain*, fine cotton cloths of various kinds, and other rich Oriental ma- 

 nufidtures. {Rofcoe's Life of Lorenzo, V. ii, p. 60 ; and otiginal letter in 

 V.m,p.2']\.] 



John II king of Portugal, who was very defirous of completing the 

 difcovery of the route to India, had already fent two agents to obtain 

 information refpefting the nature of the trade of that country, who went 

 no farther than Jerufalem, having there difcovered that their want of the 



* Porcelain was far from being common, or even ler of the maritime laws of Barcelona among the 

 generally known, in E'Jropc in this age, though it imports from Egypt. \_C:i{^n:any, Man. hift. de 

 is one of the articles enumerated in the 44'" chap- liurcckna, V- i, Cm. />. 44.] 



