A. D. T504. 2^ 



king) gained by thus recoining the groats and half-groats (being, it 

 fecms, as large as our modern fhillings and fixpcnces, which furcly they 

 could not be, if they were not of bafer allay than the old Sterling fine- 

 nefs). His lordfliip here likewife recounts many other ways which that 

 king had of getting vaft fums into his coffers, even in time of profound 

 peace ; fuch as extorting 50CO merks from the city of London for con- 

 firming their privileges ; his fubfidies, benevolences, and cafualties ; the 

 marriage portion from Spain, &c. but thefe are foreign to our fubjedl. 



1 505 — We have remarked, under the year 1 497, that the ftatute which 

 reduced the exorbitant freedom-fines of the company of merchants-ad- 

 venturers did, at the fame time, by a flrong implication, legally efla- 

 blifh that company, though they were not then precifely fo called ; yet 

 in fa6l they were, and had long before been, what this king made them 

 by his new charter. But now king Kenry VII, in the 20th year of his 

 reign, confirmed by charter ' to the merchants trading in woollen cloth 

 ' of all kinds to the Netherlands their former privileges.' And in this 

 new charter of confirmation they were firft properly ftiled the fellow- 

 fhip of merchants-adventurers of England. They had alfo hereby au- 

 thority given them to hold courts and marts at Calais ; provided, how- 

 ever, that they exadled no more (as by the ad of parliament of 1497) 

 than ten marks of any merchant whatever for his freedom in their fel- 

 lowfhip, for trading to Flanders, Brabant, Holland, Zealand, and the 

 countries adjacent, under the archduke's government ; hereby enjoin- 

 ing all merchants-adventurers to come into the freedom of this fellow- 

 iliip. Wheeler, fecretary of this fellov/fhip, in his vindication of it, 

 under the title of a Treatife of Commerce (4to, 1601), acknov.leges, 

 that at this time we are now upon, as well as in the reign of king Henry 

 IV, (as alfo in his own time) the like complaints were made by the clo- 

 thiers, wool-growers, dyers, &c. againft this fcllowihip, viz. ^hat they 

 obftruded the free courie of commerce by reilraints. Yet, adds he, af- 

 ter due examination of the complaint, the ifTae procured great favour 

 to the company, and occaiioned the enlarging of their former cliarters, 

 with an exprefs reih-aint of all ftragglers and intermeddlers (/. e. ieparate 

 traders). And whereas the Eafterlings (the German merchants of the 

 fleelyard) at this time had entered into the fame trade, king Henry VII 

 not only ftridly prohibited them from the fame, but likewife obliged 

 the aldermen of the fteelyard in London to enter into a recognizance of 

 2000 merks, that the fteelyard merchants ihould not carry any Englifh 

 cloth to the place of refidence of the merchants adventurers in the Low 

 Countries. Neverthelels, the complaints againft the merchants-adven- 

 turers' monopoly grew afterward louder aj the manufadurers increafed, 

 and the general trade of the nation became more enlarged. 



In this 20th year of king Henry VII a few filver fhillings or twelve— 

 pences were coined, being about the fortieth part of a pound weight of 



D 2 



