26 A. D. 1504. 



portation of any manner of Hlk wrought either by itfelf, or with any 

 other (luff, in ribbands, laces, girdles, corfes, and corfes of tifllie? or 

 points, upon pain of forfeiture of the fame. Alfo (on the other hand), 

 it was made lawful for all perfons, as well foreigners as Englifh, to im- 

 port all other kinds of filks, as well wrought as raw and unwrought, the 

 above excepted. The I'cader here may plainly fee, that at this time 

 there was no broad manufacture of filk made in England, as my lord 

 Bacon alfo notes, in his hiftory of king Henry VII under this ftatute. 



Another ftatute paffed (<?. 23), for confirming to the merchants of the 

 Hanfe in Almain, having the houfe in the city of London, commonly 

 called Guilhalla Teutonicorum (i. e. the German merchants of the ileel- 

 yard), all their ancient liberties, privileges, free ufages, and culloms, 

 granted either by the kings of England, or by authority of parliament; 

 and annulling all ads, ftatutes and ordinances, made in derogation of 

 their faid liberties, &c. The Englifh merchants, increafing in their fo- 

 reign commerce, had probably occafioned the Hanfeatics to procure this 

 confirmation of their ancient privileges, for which, pollibly, they might 

 gratify the avarice of the monarch. 



In another ftatute made in this fame year {c. 17), for regulating the 

 company of {hearmen of the city of Norwich, it is [inter alia) remark- 

 ed, that in Norwich, time out of mind, there had been ufed a certain 

 craft called fhearmen, for fhearing as well worfteds, ftamins, and fuf- 

 tians, as alfo all other woollen cloth, &c. This ftatute fliows us a ge- 

 neral lift of their woollen manufadures, which were even then fo con- 

 fiderable (efpecially the thinner forts), that we find more ftatutes hither- 

 to for regulating the manufadures in Norwich, and its neighbourhood 

 of Norfolk and Suffolk, than of any other part of England. 



The by-laws made by corporations or fellowftiips of crafts, guilds, 

 and fraternities, were, at this time, found to be many ways againft the 

 king's prerogative, the common law of England, and the liberty of the 

 fubjed, being (fays lord Bacon) fraternities in evil : Wherefore an ad 

 of parliament (19 Hen. VII, c. 7), reftrains the mafters or wardens of 

 fuch fellowftiips from making any new by-laws or ordinances concern- 

 ing the prices of wares and other things, for their own fmgular profit, 

 until firft examined and approved of by the lord chancellor, lord 

 treafurer, or king's juftices, on pain of forfeiting £\o for every fuch 

 offence. 



An Englifti ad of parliament paffed this fame year {c. 5), for pre- 

 venting gold and filver coins from being carried into Ireland, and Irifli 

 money from being brought into England *, and for calling all clipped 

 and diminifhed money into the mint. Neither (fays lord Bacon in his 

 hiftory of king Henry VII) was it a fmall matter that the mint (/". <?. the 



* Thev had then a mint in Ireland. 



