no A. D. 1552. 



realm, forafmuch as they have no fufficient corporation to receive the 

 fame. 



II) That fuch grants and privileges claimed by them do not extend 

 to any perfons or towns certain, and therefore it is uncertain what per- 

 fons or which towns {hould or ought to enjoy the faid privileges * ; by 

 reafon of which uncertainty, they admit to their freedom and immuni- 

 ties as many as they lift, to the great prejudice of the king's cuftoms, 

 and to the common hurt of the realm. 



III) That fuppofing the pretended grants were good in law, as indeed 

 they are not, yet the fame were made on condition that they fliould 

 not colour any other foreigner's merchandize, as by fufficient proofs 

 it appears they have done. 



IV) That above 1 00 years after the pretended privileges granted to 

 them, they uled to tranfport no merchandize out of this realm but on- 

 ly into their own countries : Neither did they import any merchandize 

 but from their own countries : Whereas, at prefent they not only con- 

 vey Englifli merchandize into the Netherlands, and there fell them, to 

 the great daniage of the king's own fubjeds, but they alfo import mer- 

 chandize ot all foreign countries, contrary to the true intent and mean- 

 ing of their privileges. 



V) That in the time of King Edward IV they had forfeited their 

 pretended privileges by means of war between the realm and them ; 

 -(i. e. the Hanfe towns) whereupon a treaty was made, ftipiilating, that 

 our Englifh fubjects fliould enjoy the like privileges in Pruilia and other 

 Hanfeatic parts, and that no new exadions ftiould be laid on their per- 

 ibns or goods : V/hich treaty has been much broken in leveral parts, 

 and efpecially at Dantzick, where no redrefs could ever be obtained, ei- 

 ther by the requefts of the king's father or himfelf, for the faid wrongs. 

 In connderation of all which, the council decreed, that the privileges, 

 liberties, and franchifes, claimed by the faid merchants of the Steelyard, 

 Ihall from henceforth be and remam feized and refumed into the king's 

 grace's hands, until the faid merchants of the Steelyard fhall declare 

 and prove better and more fufficient matter for their claim in the pre- 

 mifes : Saving, however, to the faid merchants all inch liberty of com- 

 ing into this realm and trafficking, in as ample manner as any other 

 merchants-ftrangers have withm the fame. 



Rapin adds, that the parliament had laid a heavy duty upon the mer- 

 chandize exported and imported by the Steelyard lociety ,; and the Han- 

 featic hiftorian Wardenhagen [K ii, part 5.] feems to think that the 

 high duty of 20 per cent (miiead of i per cent, their antient duty ever 

 fmce the reign of Henry III), was not laid on them till the beginning 

 .of Queen Mary's reign, ' at a time too (adds he) when almod all the 



* This was no quibble, but a folid and material objcdion. 



