THE EARLY COMMERCE OF PLYMOUTH. 299 
defence of the port against the enemy. They had to build the 
fortifications, find the guns, keep watch, and man the bulwarks ; 
and this proved the heaviest burden upon their resources, although, 
as already stated, certain dues on the commerce of the port were 
granted them for that purpose. The natural result of all this 
power and dignity was, that occasionally such corporations as that 
of Plymouth carried matters with a very high hand, though we 
do not find this town going to the lengths which proved the ruin 
of Fowey. That little port actually had- the impertinence—we 
may as well add the pluck—to continue a war with France when 
the king had concluded peace. And before this it had thrashed 
the fleet of the Cinque Ports rather than strike sail to do them 
honour. 
Save and except the national regulations affecting the import 
and export of merchandise, the trade and commerce of the port 
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were entirely under the 
control of the Corporation, and to a great extent remained so during 
the seventeenth century and part, at least, of the eighteenth. No 
man or woman could carry on any trade within the liberties of the 
borough unless they were free, and even then the way in which 
their trade should be conducted was prescribed in all strictness. 
From the brewing of beer to the building of the church steeple, 
from the regulation of fishwomen to the sustentation of a guild, 
nothing came amiss to the “twelve and twenty-four” of Plymouth. 
Hence the early municipal, ecclesiastical, and commercial history 
of the town are mixed up together in such a way that it is 
impossible to deal with one and not touch upon the others. 
There is reference to a guild of merchants here under the reign 
of Richard II.; but whether that continued to exist or not, we 
find the guild of our Lady and St. George, and the guild or 
fraternity of Corpus Christi, flourishing widely in the fifteenth 
century. In 1474 an order was made that no man should be 
free unless he were a whole or half-brother of our Lady and St. 
George’s guild ; and payment to the guild of Corpus Christi appears 
as a condition of the charter granted to the tailors of the town— 
the ‘liberty of the tailors’ craft’”—the only document of the kind 
now extant; issued in 1479-80, just four centuries ago. 
Be hit knowen to all mant of people that we Will™ Rogger mayer of the 
Burgh of plymouthe, Thomas Tresawell Recorder of the same Thomas 
byne Will™ Nicoll John paynter Will Thikpeny. peryn Erle, w‘ other moo 
