A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



blunders, such a general air of verisimilitude, that it is impossible to dismiss its statements without 

 investigation. In fact the assertion that the aliens failed to get a footing in York is borne out by 

 contemporary evidence. The question, howrever, of exclusion from a jealously guarded city with ail 

 the machinery of civic control in the hands of a close oligarchy is a very different matter from 

 closing up the whole of the sparsely populated districts of the West Riding. That the 16th-century 

 aliens should have persistently avoided the district where there were special facilities for their trade, 

 and whither it is natural they should have resorted, when the pressure brought to bear on them in 

 corporate towns became unbearable or when newly arriving in the country, is so contrary to 

 expectation that some explanation is necessary. It must be remembered too that if they arrived in 

 the Humber, the West Riding would be the nearest refuge where their occupation was carried on 

 to any great extent, for even in the reign of Elizabeth the East Riding had concentrated on 

 agriculture. 



The difficulty of carrying out a systematic policy of exclusion, such as was rigidly enforced 

 by the local authorities in some towns, in the wide and scattered area of the West Riding clothing 

 district, is sufficiently obvious. The lay subsidy already quoted proves the impossibility of complete 

 exclusion even from York, the most exclusive of all cities. The argument that any accretion of 

 individuals filtering through fi-om the eastern counties or having been refused admittance at York 

 would have introduced the manufacture of ' new draperies,' and that as the West Ridiug remained 

 faithful to ' kerseys ' no aliens settled, is plausible but not entirely convincing. For if they came as 

 refugees rather than pioneers they would be more likely to satisfy an existing demand than start a 

 new industry. There was a steady call for coarse Yorkshire cloth, especially after the organization 

 of the cloth export trade by the Merchant Adventurers and Eastland Merchants, both active agencies 

 in Yorkshire, offered such facilities for transportation to the Baltic Provinces, where the Pomeranian 

 and Polish nobles clothed their retainers in this coarse but durable material.^' 



The difficulty of procuring the best kind of wool is also a factor in the argument ; the records 

 of the Yorkshire woollen trade are full of complaints of the way in which the south country 

 clothiers bought up all the best Cotswold, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk wools. At any time it would 

 be cheaper for the Yorkshire weaver to work up the wool produced in his district, and no amount 

 of skill brought to bear on inferior wool would make it into fine cloth. The argument that the 

 lack of improvement in the cloth proves the absence of the skilled alien weaver is not conclusive. 

 That the civic authorities of York would strenuously oppose any settlement of aliens, who might 

 become a burden on the town, would be in keeping with what is known of that august body ; but 

 that the merchants of York, whose gain depended on buying the work of the weavers in the out- 

 l)'ing western district cheap and selling it dear, would connive at or even assist alien weavers to 

 settle in the vicinity is quite compatible with their character, especially when it is remembered that 

 they would by this means curry favour with the central government, whose favour they were anxious 

 to gain in order to procure convoys for their goods. In their character as civic authorities they would 

 naturally be anxious to drive the alien from the city, but in their character as money-makers it is 

 difficult to believe that the extremely level-headed merchants, who formed the bulk of the council, 

 would not see in the arrival of the foreigners an opportunity for getting a plentiful supply of cheap 

 cloth. In fact, in 1568, when the labour element in the common council had forced the hand of 

 the lord mayor and aldermen to pass a measure forbidding any manner of foreigner of any mystery 

 craft or occupation to settle in York unless he paid £7, 6s. Sd. at the least, the capitalist element 

 had added a saving clause, 



Except onely some such handycraftsman as shalbe thought by the said lord mayor and his counsel! 

 necessaree and profitable for the comon weal and amendment of the sayd citie to be somewhat 

 mitigated of the said {ranches money.''' 



The presence of the foreign worker in various branches of the iron trade during the 14th 

 century is satisfactorily proved. The register of freemen bears ample testimony to the fact that 

 aliens came ft-eely to York and took part in the cutlery trade. The first furbur, i.e. cutler or 

 furbisher of armour, entered on the roll bears the name of ' Willelmus Fraunceis,' whether alien or 

 English born it is, of course, impossible to say.'^ But it has never been suggested that the impetus 

 which originated the iron trade in York came from without. Goldsmiths, money-makers, workers 

 in brass and copper, cutlers, smiths, marshalls, ironmongers, makers of needles, locksmiths, wire- 

 drawers, all figure in the roll in the reigns of Edward I and 11.'^ Still, it is suggestive that at the 

 time when it is clear from many difiFerent sources that Edward III was trying to improve English 

 manufactures there should have been in the metallic as in the woollen trade an influx of alien 

 artisans. ' Arnaldus de Almaygne, furbur,' came in 1327 '' ; he was followed four years later by Ingil- 

 bright de Alman '^j and in 1340 'Christianus de Devensrode, furbour de Alman,' came to the city." 



" B.M. Reasons offered by the Merchant Adventurers and Eastland Merchants, 8 16, m (100). 



''York Munic. Rec. xxxiv, fol. 104, 13 Feb. i;68. " York Freemen (Surt. Soc), i, 3. 



'=Ibid. 1-23. '^Ibid. 2+. " Ibid. 26. "Ibid. 35. 



460 



