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visit of the Flanders' Galleys was in 1532; henceforth Venetian merchants traded with London at their own risk, and no longer under the auspices of the Venetian state.

The history of English commerce in the fourteenth and The staple fifteenth centuries is largely the history of the English staple. The staple1 was a depot where traders deposited their wares; it was a continuous mart at which commodities were bought and sold, just as the fair was a periodical mart. The underlying principle of the staple system, which ultimately was a creation of the state rather than a private enterprise, was to regulate the stream of commerce and force it into definite channels. The staple town served as a centre of distribution, to which merchandise was carried in the first instance and there exposed for sale. When it exercised a monopoly and was made compulsory for traders it prevented free trade, but was recommended to the government by certain fiscal and political advantages. Its primary purpose was to facilitate the collection of the custom-revenue. It was devised as part of the financial machinery to prevent evasion of toll on the part of those who exported English wool abroad furtim et occulte 2, and also to safeguard against the fraudulent malpractices of collectors, who were accused of grave offences in the discharge of their duties. At the same time it enabled the king more easily to enforce a recognized standard of quality, by bringing the export trade under the direct control and supervision of the royal officials. The staple also served a political purpose as an instrument of diplomacy, by which to conciliate friends and intimidate enemies. Foreign courts intrigued for its possession, and it was eagerly sought after by France, Holland, Flanders, Artois and Brabant. When the staple was fixed at Calais, it fulfilled other functions to which attention will be directed later.

The institution of the staple originated to all appearance

1 For the etymology of the word staple, see E. Williams, Staple Inn (1906), 5.

2 These words occur in the ordinance establishing the staple at Bruges in 1341 Rymer (R. ed.), ii. part ii. 1172.

3 Patent Rolls, 1321-1324, p. 164 (1322).

Its early in the thirteenth century, though the details of its organizabeginnings. tion were not worked out until the fourteenth. Its early beginnings are extremely obscure. The Merchant Staplers claimed that a staple of English wool existed as early as 1266—and there are grounds 1 for accepting their statement; but we have no knowledge as to its whereabouts. In 1285 Edward I. entered into an alliance with Holland, and a staple was set up at Dordrecht 2. Subsequently (1296) the English king united with the Flemings, and the staple, we are told, was removed to Bruges 3. About the same time, we find "the merchants of England" frequenting Antwerp which John, Duke of Brabant, granted to Edward I. in 1296*; and here they remained at intervals during the rest of the reign 5. The development of the staple system was carried a step further by an Ordinance of 1297, which enjoined that wool and other merchandise should have no passage out of the realm save at the following ports: Newcastle-on-Tyne, Hull, Boston, Yarmouth, Ipswich, London, Sandwich, Southampton and Bristol, where collectors of customs were appointed. The object of this measure was purely fiscal; it sought to divert the export trade of the country into regulated channels for purposes of revenue. But it marked a stage in the growth of the staple, because it

1 (i.) In 1320 English merchants contended that a staple for wool was in existence under Henry III. and Edward I., and as the fact alleged was in hominum memoria, it is worthy of credence: Close Rolls, 1318-1323, p. 234. (ii.) The tradition of a wool-staple under Henry III. survived as late as 1583, and was not denied by the Merchant Adventurers, who were then contesting the claims of the Merchant Staplers: Schanz, Englische Handelspolitik, ii. 588, No. 135.

a Varenbergh, Relations diplomatiques entre Flandre et l'Angleterre, 165; C. M. Davies, History of Holland (1841), i. 112.

3 Varenbergh, op. cit. 180; Davies, op. cit. i. 117. wool to Flanders was granted in 1297: Rymer, i. 852.

Permission to take

4 Patent Rolls, 1307-1313, p. 557. Notification that the king has seen the letters patent dated 1296 of the duke of Brabant.

5 (i.) In 1299 English merchants are requested by the king to go to Antwerp as they used to do, the duke of Brabant having promised to observe his agreements: Patent Rolls, 1292-1301, p. 423. (ii.) We find the merchants in Antwerp in 1301 and 1302: Close Rolls, 1296–1302, pp. 439, 551. (iii.) In 1306 merchants are allowed to go to Ardenbourg in Flanders, as they used to go to Bruges: Patent Rolls, 1301-1307, P. 435. (iv.) In 1310 the duke of Brabant informs the king that merchants have ceased to go to Antwerp; it is announced, therefore, that all merchants may hold the staple at Antwerp, as they have been wont to do: Close Rolls, 1307-1313, p. 293. • Close Rolls, 1296–1302, p. 86; Madox, Exchequer, 536.

compelled traders to export their commodities from certain

centres.

Ordinance

(1313).

Edward II., however, rather than Edward I. ought The perhaps to be regarded as the father of the English staple, of the for in his reign the system assumed its most characteristic Staple features. In the earlier period the staple was apparently voluntary and not compulsory; it was the recognized centre of the oversea trade and the established resort of organized commercial bodies, but merchants still remained free to frequent any port they chose 1. In 1313 an Ordinance was issued, which stated that the king had suffered loss of revenue from allowing native and foreign merchants to export wool wherever they pleased in Brabant, Flanders or Artois ; and it ordered "the mayor and commonalty of the merchants" to set up a fixed staple, to which all wool and woolfells shipped abroad should be carried. This Ordinance conflicted with the interests of the alien party in England, who sought freedom of traffic without any restrictions on their trade; it may very well, therefore, have been the work of the Ordainers 3 whose policy, as we have shown, was anti-alien. The purpose of the regulation was to confine to the staple town all who exported English produce; it set aside voluntary agencies in favour of a compulsory organization, which was binding on all engaged in foreign trade. The mayor and council of the merchants" were granted jurisdiction to convict all merchants, denizens and aliens alike, who made default against the Ordinance of the Staple ; and their authority was confirmed on subsequent occasions 5.

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1 Close Rolls, 1318-1323, P. 234. In the thirteenth century, according to the merchants, no penalties were inflicted upon contraveners of the staple. Cf. also Patent Rolls, 1292-1301, p. 423 (merchants of England requested to go to Antwerp-showing that the obligation was not compulsory). 2 Patent Rolls, 1307-1313, p. 591; Letter Book E, 18.

This point is well brought out in T. F. Tout, The Place of Edward II. in English History (1914), 249. For their other measures against aliens, see supra, p. 452.

4 Patent Rolls, 1313-1317, p. 15-a writ of aid (issued three months after the Ordinance of the Staple) empowering the mayor of the staple to convict offenders. For the imposition of penalties, see Fine Rolls, iii. 12, 14, 26.

Patent Rolls, 1317–1321, p. 489 (1320); Hakluyt, Voyages (ed. 1903), i. 350-De Stapula tenenda in certo loco ordinatio.

Opposition of foreign traders.

The Ordinance of 1313 was regarded by the merchants in the light of a charter, which empowered them to fix the location of the staple at their own discretion and to enforce obedience to their decision. It suggests that in their origin the staple and the body of Merchant Staplers were not, as is generally supposed, a creation of the state, but a private—or more strictly, a semi-private1-commercial enterprise, afterwards transformed into an organ of government and adjusted to the fiscal and political needs of the state. This conjecture seems confirmed by the wording of a subsequent ordinance issued in 1325, when the king made a grant of the staple to Bruges: "The king wills that the aforesaid grant shall not prejudice . . . Merchants of the Staple, contrary to the tenor of the charter of that staple, and shall not be drawn into a precedent hereafter" 2. The foreign traders, however, raised vigorous opposition to the establishment of a compulsory staple. In 1320 merchants of the Society of the Bardi of Florence and other alien merchants appeared before the king's council, and asserted that they ought not to be restricted to the staple. They urged that they had never consented that a charter should be obtained from the king, and that they ought not to be bound by it to carry their wool and wool-fells to the staple against their will, once they had paid their customs; the restriction being contrary to Magna Carta, which allowed merchants to pass freely from the realm. The native merchants rejoined that a wool-staple had existed in the time of Henry III. and Edward I., but that formerly no penalties were imposed upon those who contravened it; and accordingly the charter had been obtained at the suit of native and alien merchants in order to set up a compulsory staple. They added-and here came a first hint of the political importance of the staple system-that by means of this staple the king would be able to bring pressure to bear upon other countries and constrain them from lending assistance to his enemies 3.

For several months after the Ordinance of 1313 the staple

1 See infra, p. 484.

2 I.e. the grant was not to prejudice the merchants' right to fix the staple: Close Rolls, 1323-1327, P. 378. 3 Ibid. 1318-1323, p. 234.

would seem to have remained at Antwerp 1. Flanders The seat of the staple. enjoyed the prior claim as the chief market for English wool, and in July 1314 Count Robert tried to secure the "fixed staple" for Bruges, but Philip had already (May 1314) urged its transference to St. Omer 3, and his representations prevailed. Accordingly we find the staple at St. Omer early in 13154, but before the end of the year it was once more restored to Antwerp 5. For a time, indeed, commercial relations between England and Flanders were altogether suspended at the instance of the French king, who was at enmity with Flanders and urged Edward II. to arrest all Flemings in England: "on the fealty which you bear us and the alliances which subsist between us". Edward II. complied with the request, and commanded the expulsion of Flemings from the country. Shortly afterwards Louis, who had succeeded Philip on the French throne, prayed the king "with pressing importunity" to establish a staple between Calais and the Seine; and merchants were ordered to confer with the king at Lincoln 8. However, in 1316, peace was concluded between Flanders and France, and the resumption of commercial relations with England was followed in 1318 by a renewal of the proposal to remove the staple to a Flemish town. Merchants again were summoned 10, but for the moment nothing was done. Instead a new project was set on foot, and attention was concentrated upon a design to establish home staples within the kingdom, at which native produce was to be bought and sold, and nowhere else. The question had been raised in earlier parliaments, and more particularly in the parliament which met at York in 1318 11. The next year writs were issued for 1 Close Rolls, 1313-1318, p. 46. The staple was at Antwerp in March 1314. Rymer, ii. part i. 252. 3 Ibid. ii. part i. 248. The request was granted: ibid. ii. part i. 251. 4 Close Rolls, 1313-1318, p. 219. This was in February.

5 Ibid. 1313-1318, p. 315. This was in November. 6 Rymer, ii. part i. 270 (1315).

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7 Ibid. ii. part i. 280.

• Ibid. ii. part i. 281; Close Rolls, 1313-1318, p. 258. This was in December 1315. 9 Rymer, ii. part i. 303. 10 Ibid. ii. part i. 378. The mayor of the merchants, John de Cherleton, was present in the parliament at York on business touching the state of the said merchants going to Flanders ": Patent Rolls, 1317-1321, p. 239. 11 See the document printed by A. E. Bland, "The Establishment of the Home Staples" (1319), in English Hist. Review, xxix. 95 seq.

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