Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, Volume 1. Green Alice Stopford
of Flanders or under the Archduke of Burgundy should first pay a fine to the Merchants’ Fellowship in London on pain of forfeiture of all their wares bought and sold. The fine was at first half an old noble, and demanded by a colour of a fraternity of S. Thomas at Canterbury, and “so by colour of such feigned holiness it hath been suffered to be taken for a few years past.” Finally, however, the London Fellowship raised the fine to £20, then the other merchants began to withdraw from the marts and the cloth trade to suffer. On the complaint of the merchant adventurers living outside London Parliament ordered that the fine should only be ten marks. (12 Henry VII., cap. 6.) For the complaint of the Hull traders against the merchant adventurers of London in 1622 see Lambert’s Gild Life, 171-2.
104
Schanz, i. 342.
105
Schanz, ii. 571.
106
3 Ed. IV. c. 4.
107
Schanz, i. 618-19.
108
Bacon’s History of Henry the Seventh, 38.
109
The men of Cologne had a house in London as early as 1157.
110
Founded before 1240 (Schanz, i. 291-3). Some interesting details are given in Mr. Hudson’s Notes on Norwich (Norfolk Archæology, xii. 25; see section on madder and woad.) For merchants of Lorraine, Denmark, &c., Liber Custumarum, Nunimenta Gildhallæ Londiniensis (Rolls Series), vol. ii. part 1, xxxiv. &c.
111
In the beginning of the fourteenth century (Schanz, i. 113-8).
112
See Keutgen, Die Beziehungen der Hanse zu England, 40.
113
Boys’ Sandwich, 375; Paston, iii. 436. The foreign trade is illustrated by some of the things in Fastolf’s house; the Seeland cloth, i. 481; iii. 405 – brass pots and chafferns of French making, i. 481 – silver Paris cups, 475; iii. 270-1, 297-8 – blue glasses, i. 486 – habergeons of Milan, 487 – ”overpayn of Raines,” 489 – cloth of Arras, 479 – harness from Almayne, iii. 405 – German girdles, iii. 270-1 – the treacle-pots of Genoa, ii. 293-4, bought of the apothecary. The merchant’s marks were especially noted for fear of adulteration. The grocer, or dealer in foreign fruits, also sold hawks, iii. 55-6. In the reign of Henry the Eighth about a dozen shops in London sold French or Milan cups, glasses, knives, daggers, swords, girdles, and such things. Hist. MSS. Com. viii. 93. “A discourse of the commonwealth of this Realme of England.”
114
Libel of English Policy; Political Poems and Songs (Rolls Series), ii. 173, 172. Fabyan, 630. See petition of burghers against the Lombards, 1455, in Rot. Parl. v. 334
115
Schanz, i. 65. Strangers exporting wool had to pay 43
116
In 1372 there is a receipt by two of the company of the Strozzi for money from Archbishop Langham. Hist. MSS. Com. iv. part 1, 186.
117
Clement, Jacques Cœur, 23-4.
118
For the failure of this company in 1437 and its effect on English traders, see Bekynton’s Corres. i. 248-50, 254.
119
Libel of English Policy. Pol. Poems and Songs, ii. 172.
120
Schanz, i. 124-6.
121
Hist. MSS. Com. xi. 3, p. 11, 87. 11 H. IV. c. 7. Yarn and unfulled cloths paid only subsidy – finished cloths paid also customs and measuring tax. Schanz, i. 448, note.
122
Davies’ Southampton, 254.
123
Denton’s Lectures, 192; Paston Letters, iii. 269.
124
Pauli’s Pictures, 126-132.
125
Keutgen, 41.
126
Keutgen, 41. Dinant was the only town outside German-speaking countries that belonged to the Hanseatic League. It entered the League in the middle of the fourteenth century as a sort of external member – only
127
Keutgen, 5, 30.
128
Keutgen, 14-18.
129
For a description of the Steel-yard see Pauli’s Pictures.
130
The ordinary size of French ships seems to have been 1,000 or 1,200 tons. (Heralds’ Debate, 51-2.) Cannyngs, of Bristol, had in his little fleet vessels of 900, 500, or 400 tons. (Cruden’s Gravesend, 131.) The “Harry Grace à Dieu,” built at Woolwich, 1512, was of 1,500 tons, and cost £6,472. (Ibid. 143-9.)
131
1382; 5 Richard II., Stat. 1, c. 3. See Schanz, i. 360, for the scope of this law.
132
6 Richard II., Stat. 1, c. 8.
133
A small war vessel with probably about forty sailors, ten men-at-arms, and ten archers. Nott. Rec. i. 444.
134
Southampton had to keep a ship, “le Grâce de Dieu,” at its own expense for the king’s service. In the last year of Henry the Sixth its master received from the mayor £31 10
135
Schanz, i. 356-7, 362, 367. On page 357 he quotes from a petition of the commons in 1371 (Rot. Parl. ii. 306-7) to prove that the one result of the foreign policy of Edward the First was the
136
Hist. MSS. Com. v. 501.
137
Edward the Fourth made one futile attempt to revive the protection of English shipping, but the Act only lasted three years. (3 Ed. IV. c. i.)
138
Schanz, i. 328.
139
Heralds’ Debate, 51-2.
140
Hist. MSS. Com. v. 528. See the hiring out of the London barge; loss by accident from tempest or enemies to fall on the commonalty; Mem. Lond., 478.
141
Hist. MSS. Com. xi. 3, 215-16, 221-2, 188-191.
142
Hist. MSS. Com. v. 534-540.
143
Hist. MSS. Com. v. 496. Rye kept its own “schipwrite,” John Wikham, who had the freedom of the town for sixteen years while building the ships of the port, and at last left in 1392 with a glowing testimonial from the mayor and barons of Rye. Along with other towns it had made profit by selling ships to aliens, which might afterwards be used by the enemies of England, and a proclamation