By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 



151 



there the King had his mint in such manner as in the Tower of 

 London." 1 



Within a few years of the foreign staple being fixed at Calais a 

 most important Act was passed (27 Edw. III.) which is commonly 

 called " The Statute of the Staple." It was hereby enacted, in 

 consequence (as the preamble sets forth) "of the notorious damage 

 that hath notoriously come . . . . .to the realm of England 

 because that the Staple was holden out of the said realm, and also 

 for the great profit which should come to the said realm if the 

 Staple were holden within the same," that the staple should be 

 held at certain towns in England. The towns named in the first 

 instance were Newcastle-on-Tyne, York, Lincoln, Norwich, West- 

 minster, Canterbury, Chichester, Winchester, Exeter and Bristol. 

 In Acts of this, or subsequent reigns, other towns are added to 

 this list, or substituted for some of the first-named places : — South- 

 ampton, for instance, or " Hampton " as it was then called, in the 

 time of Edw. IV. took the place of Winchester. In another 

 section of this " Statute of the Staple " — (there are no less than 

 29 sections in all) — certain ports are specified as those from which, 

 commodities might be exported, this last privilege however being 

 allowed to Merchants Strangers only, it being decreed felony for 

 any English Merchant to export wool. At each town moreover 

 where the staple was appointed to be held, there were also to be 

 elected a Mayor of the Staple and two Constables, in a similar 

 manner as at Calais, their duty consisting in seeing that the laws 

 and customs of the Staple were maintained. Every Merchant too 

 repairing to the same, was required to take an oath to maintain 

 the Staple, and the laws and customs thereof. The Ma}^or of the 

 Staple in each Town was elected annually by the commonalty of the 

 merchants who traded at that place : he was eligible for re-election, 

 but could not it is believed, hold office for more than two successive 

 years. His duty was to keep the peace, to arrest offenders in the 

 Staple for debt, trespasses, and other contracts, to put them into 

 prison and punish them after the law of the Staple. He held a 

 court in which he heard and decided on all pleas relating to the 

 1 Sir Edward Coke. 



