4U BlllTlSH WOOL TRADE. 



cured him L. 40,000. Edward was apparentiy noi 

 very sure how far his subjects would submit to so 

 sweeping a taxation, as we find him addressing a letter, 

 dated Berwick-upon-Tweed, March 28th, 1338, to the 

 Archbishops of York and Canterbury, desiring the 

 favour of their prayers, and requesting that they would 

 excuse him to his people, on account of the great 

 taxes he was obhged to lay upon them. During the 

 summer of 1339, the laity granted to the king the one- 

 half of their wools throughout the whole realm, a 

 favour his majesty is reported to have received most 

 graciously ; but of the clergy he levied the whole, 

 compelling them to pay nine merks for every sack of 

 the best wool. Knighton, who held an office in the 

 Abbey of Leicester, says that that house alone furnish- 

 ed eigliteen sacks. The revenue officers during this 

 reign appear to have exercised their calling with great 

 strictness, and to have interfered in an especial manner 

 with the secret trade of the inhabitants of Bristol, but 

 this was terminated by the king granting a licence, 

 dated Langley, November 25th, 1339, to their weavers, 

 allowing them " to make woollen cloth without being 

 liable to any molestation from the king's officers." 



(46.) Progress of the trade under Henry VII., 

 Henry VIII. , and Edward VI. — During the bloody 

 and destructive wars of the white and red roses, 

 when success graced the arms alternately of York and 

 Lancaster, commercial enterprise was almost at a stand. 

 Tliis unhappy period brought, however, with all its' 

 evils, blessings in its train, and Henry VI L not only 

 did more for the advancement of the wool-trade than 

 his predecessors, but also gave it greater vigour than it 



