364 X>f' Parry's Essay on the Nature, Produce, Origin, 



sheep to greater estimation; for, according to Dugdale, in 1302, a cow sold for 

 6s. 8d. a fat mutton (wether) for a shilling, and a ewe-sheep for eight-pence ; or 

 from about one-tenth to one-seventh of the price of the ox.* 



Till this period there is nothing in the history of England or of the continent, 

 which can in the slightest degree justify us in concluding that our wool was consi- 

 dered as possessing peculiar merit. 



In 1302, a new aera seemed to arise, Edward the First and bis Parliament 

 established the great charter of merchandize, called Charta Mercatoria, in which 

 they permitted all foreign merchants to sell their goods in England, under certain 

 restrictions and customs, and to export scarlet and other dyed cloths, wool-fels, and 

 ■wool J the last article at ^od. per sack, over and above the old custom of 6s. Sd. 

 The Charta Mercatoria was republished and confirmed in several subsequent 

 reigns, as those of Edward III. Richard II, Henry IV. and Henry V.t and tended 

 to establish the claim of the customs, which, without that authority, our monarchs 

 would indeed have been sufficiently averse to relinquish. 



Besides this custom, as the exigences of the state increased, more especially for 

 the support of foreign wars, the Parliament on various occasions granted subsidies, 

 of which nothing afforded so sure and exten.^ive a basis as wool. These subsidies 

 were almost universally laid only on wool exported; and amounted to from 30^. 

 to £ ^. per sack, usually over and above the old custom of 6s. 8d. They were in 

 general considerably higher for wool exported by aliens than by natives or denizens. 

 As the home manufacture increased, they were extended to cloth as well as wool; 

 and, from the time of Henry the Eighth, came to be comprehended under the 

 general head of tonnage and poundage. 



Large sums were in this way raised; but the sovereigns, by their own authority, 

 occasionally remitted these imposts in favour of particular persons or countries. 

 Nor did they, sometimes, hesitate totally to prohibit the exportation of wool and 

 cloth. But these resolutions were of short duration, having always in view the 

 graiificatioM of some temporary animosity, or the acquisition of some pecu- 

 niary emolument. It was not till 1647, ''^^ Y^'"' before the decollation of the 

 unfortunate Charles tlie First, that the Parliament seriously and on principle in- 

 terdicted the exportation of wool ; a resolution which was finally confirmed by 



• Chronicon preciosum, page 83. 



■f Rymer's Fadera, IX. 72. Anderson, anno 1302. 



