SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



in the Middle Ages famous for the quality of its wool, though there was a 

 cocket of wools at Melcombe before the reign of Edward I, and subsequently 

 in 1364 a staple was established.'" In 1343 the enhanced price was only 

 8 marks, one of the lowest rates in the kingdom,"' and the religious houses 

 though they certainly kept considerable flocks in the sixteenth century,"^ do 

 not appear to have exported very largely in the fourteenth century."* More- 

 over the value of Dorset wool was so small, and the cost of export to the 

 staple at Calais so great, that the wool merchants joined with those of Wilt- 

 shire, Somerset, and Berkshire in 1393-4, in petitioning for the establishment 

 of a more convenient staple in Normandy."' But the disadvantages under 

 which the county laboured seem only to have proved an incentive to the 

 invention of underhand means of obtaining a return for their wool-growing. 

 In 1376 it was stated that the people of Wiltshire, Bristol, Gloucestershire, 

 and Dorset were exporting ' Wolyn-yerne ' in ' tonelx pipes sakes et fardelx ' 

 to Normandy and Lombardy, thus defrauding the customs and injuring the 

 knights and merchants of the counties who were ' dissivez en Drap pur cause 

 du diversite le dit zern,' and that the trade was so flourishing that no servants 

 could be got to work in the harvest-fields, but all made excuse ' en fesant le 

 dit zern et par eel causes les Servantz sont le plus fols du corps.' "' Steps 

 were taken to remedy this evasion of the customs and deception of the con- 

 sumer, but in 1389 fresh complaints were made that cloth was being sold in 

 Somerset, Dorset, Bristol, and Gloucester, folded and rolled together, large 

 parts of which inside were damaged and not like the part shown outside, so 

 that merchants who bought the cloth and exported it for sale beyond the seas 

 were often ' at death's door, and imprisoned and put to fine and ransom by 

 the foreigners on account of the cloth.' "^ 



The records of Bridport admirably illustrate civic development in the 

 county between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The view of arms in 1 3 1 9 

 shows that the burgesses of Bridport only possessed a stick and a knife, or dagger ; 

 just a few plutocrats had a sword, but no one had bow and arrows."* Of the i 80 

 burgesses only sixty-seven were taxed ; the richest man owned one cow, two 

 hogs, two brass platters, some hides, and a little furniture, the total value of 

 his possessions amounting to £i\. 8/. A respectable innkeeper was assessed 

 for two hogs, two beds, two table-cloths, two hand-napkins, one horse, one 

 brass pot, and one platter, a few wooden vessels and a little malt."' In 1323 

 Bridport had made some progress. The taxation for one-sixth mentions eighty 

 persons assessed, even if some of these only had property amounting to 6s. 

 The tax-payer who was valued in 13 19 at ^'4 8j-. now owned property to 

 the extent of ^^6, whilst the possessions of the most wealthy man were rated 

 at ;^8.'''' A century and a quarter later Bridport was scarcely the same 

 place. Numerous fraternities, those of St. Nicholas, St. James, and St. Mary 

 the Virgin, the ' Brotherhood of the Torches,' of ' St. Katharine,' and ' of the 

 Light of the Holy Cross in St. Andrews Church,' prove the existence of a 

 flourishing middle-class population."' ' The expenses of the cofferers of the 



'" Rot. Pari. (Rec. Com.), i, 317* ; ii, 288^, 304-1. '" Ibid, ii, 138^. 



'" Fahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 228, &c. 



'" Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry (ed. 1905), 1,632. 



"• Rot. Pari (Rec. Com.), iii, 322^. '" Ibid, ii, 353/;. 



'" Ibid, iii, 272^7 ; cf. also Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry (ed. 1905), i, 434-5. 



'" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 491. '" Ibid. "° Ibid. 492. '" Ibid. 478. 



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