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tion, in the fourteenth century the staple and fairs were among the causes impelling merchants to move about.

49. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ENGLAND'S FOREIGN TRADE1

In turning now to consider the beginnings of England's foreign trade, we must steadily bear in mind that, though the interest of the subject is great, both for the light it casts on the conditions of the time and also because of the dominant part which foreign trade was destined ultimately to play in English development, its bulk was relatively very small throughout the Middle Ages, in comparison with the total economic activity of the nation. England remained on the whole a self-sufficing country. Export carried away only such surplus raw produce as the land itself did not require, especially wool; and import brought chiefly luxuries, such as silks, furs, fine and dyed woollen cloth, and French wines, purchased by a very limited upper class, together with the spices, which rendered more palatable the food and drink of the well-to-do. Probably the only imported article in general use among the masses of the people was the Norwegian tar which was employed as dressing for sheep in cases of scab; this seems to have been introduced at the end of the thirteenth century. Down to the close of the Middle Ages, England. was far inferior to certain other parts of Europe to the Rhineland and to the great cities of North and South Germany on the one side; to the Italian republics, such as Genoa and Venice on the other-in manufacturing skill, in accumulated capital, in commercial enterprise, in knowledge of the arts of navigation and of accounting, and in the possession of shipping. It was really only in the seventeenth century that England began to compete with the other nations of Western Europe on anything like equal terms, and only in the eighteenth century that it took the place of Holland and became the great carrying and entrepôt nation of the world.

50. THE STAPLERS2

The staplers were merchants who had the monopoly of exporting the principal raw commodities of the realm, especially wool, woolfels, leather, tin, and lead, wool figuring most prominently among these

Taken by permission from W. J. Ashley, The Economic Organization of England, pp. 68–69. (Longmans, Green, & Co., 1914.)

'Adapted by permission from Charles Gross, The Gild Merchant, I, 140–47. (The Clarendon Press, 1890.)

"staple" wares. The merchants of the staple used to claim that their privileges dated from the time of Henry III, but existing records do not refer to the staple before the time of Edward I. Previous to this reign the export trade was mainly in the hands of the German Hanse merchants.

The staples were the towns to which the above-mentioned wares had to be brought for sale or exportation. Sometimes there was only one such mart, and this was situated abroad, generally at Bruges or Calais, occasionally at Antwerp, St. Omer, or Middleburgh. From the reign of Richard II until 1558 the foreign staple was at Calais. The list of home staples was also frequently changed.

The many changes in the location of the staples-especially the foreign staples, during the fourteenth century-were often due to political rather than to economic considerations, the removal of the staple mart being employed by the English king as a weapon of coercion or reprisal against foreign princes.

It is evident that the staple was primarily a fiscal organ of the crown, facilitating the collection of the royal customs. It also ensured the quality of the goods exported by providing a machinery for viewing and marking them; it stimulated commerce by providing alien merchants with a special tribunal and protecting them in other ways, "to give courage to merchant strangers to come with their wares and merchandises into the realm."

It is likewise evident, from the ordinance of 27 Edward III and from other records, that the mayor and constables of the home staples were public functionaries of the king, originally distinct from the municipal authorities, although in course of time it became customary in some towns for the mayor of the borough to act ex officio as mayor of the staple.

We are particularly concerned with the organization of the staplers as a company or gild. There can be no doubt that they constituted one general fraternity or fellowship, although few modern writers allude to this fact, and some expressly deny it. Indeed, the Company of the Staple of England is still in existence, although it is now shorn of all its ancient trade functions, its members assembling only to feast together.

The home staples of England and Wales individually do not seem to have constituted separate fraternities, though they often acted jointly, as, for example, in electing their mayors and constables. In Ireland, on the other hand, during the fifteenth and sixteenth

centuries, the staplers of a town were generally incorporated as a company or a fraternity. The charter granted by the king to such a fellowship generally allowed its members annually to elect a mayor and two constables, to make by-laws, to have charge of the king's beam for the weighing of wares, and to take recognizances of the staple. It was the custom in some Irish boroughs to appoint the retiring mayor of the town mayor of the staple and the retiring bailiffs of the town constables of the staple.

The increase of home manufactures and the corresponding diminution in the export of wool sapped the foundations of the staple system. The prohibition of the export of wool in 1660 must have given a finishing blow to the staple as an active organism. But there were still some survivals of the home staples in the first half of the present century, and, as I have already pointed out, the Company of the Staple of England is still in existence.

51. THE MERCHANT ADVENTURERS'

It is often assumed that English foreign commerce was almost completely, if not altogether, in the hands of aliens, at any rate until the fourteenth century was far advanced. But there are grounds for believing that the extent to which English merchants carried on foreign trade and competed with aliens in earlier times has been greatly underestimated. They were by no means excluded from the export trade, and they had a greater share in the beginnings of English commerce than is usually recognized. As early as Stephen's reign the men of Newcastle had their own ships, and one rich burgess engaged in trading ventures with his own merchant vessels.

Among the different groups of English merchants who carried native wares to foreign countries the most prominent were the Merchant Adventurers, who rose to great commercial importance.

The Merchant Adventurers were trading capitalists; they were engaged in foreign trade and left the internal trade of the country in the hands of the livery companies. "No person of this fellowship, ran an ordinance, shall "sell . . . . by retail . . . . nor shall keep open shop." The government of the society appears to have been located, not in London, but on the continent. It has been stated that the Mercers of London formed the nucleus of the company, but in any case the members were drawn from many towns. "The Adapted by permission from E. Lipson, The Economic History of England: The Middle Ages, pp. 486-92. (A. & C. Black, Ltd., 1915.)

I

Company of the Merchant Adventurers consisteth of a great number of wealthy and well-experimented merchants dwelling in divers great cities, maritime towns, and other parts of the realm, to wit, London, York, Norwich, Exeter, Ipswich, Newcastle, Hull, etc. These men of old time linked and bound themselves together in company for the exercise of merchandise and sea-fare, trading in cloth, kersey, and all other . . . . commodities vendible abroad." At the end of the sixteenth century the Merchant Adventurers were said to number three thousand five hundred persons, "inhabiting London and sundry cities and parts of the realm." The Merchant Adventurers of other towns were to all appearance distinct but affiliated bodies.

....

The Merchant Adventurers constituted a regulated company, that is, membership was open to all who were willing to pay its admission fees and acquiesce in its authority. Within its sphere of influence the company had a complete monopoly of trade, and no outsider or "interloper" was tolerated. This monopoly was backed by the authority of the English state. It was intended to develop "a well-ordered and ruled trade" in which production was limited, prices were high and stable, and commodities were well-wrought. This was the ideal of mediaeval commerce. The Merchant Staplers, for example, prided themselves on the fact that they had "kept and maintained the prices of the said commodity (wool) in utterance thereof to the strangers as much as in them hath lain." Again, the Merchant Adventurers claimed credit on the ground that they did "keep up the price of our commodities abroad by avoiding an overglut of our commodities whereto they trade, . . . . whereas contrariwise when trade is free, many sellers will make ware cheap and of less estimation." The system of chartered companies had certain definite advantages. It gave to merchants in the pursuit of their trade a recognized status as the members of a wealthy and powerful company, able to maintain its privileges and to resist oppression. It prevented excessive competition among traders, which flooded the market with commodities and lowered prices to the benefit of foreign buyers. Merchants abroad were forbidden to sell or buy secretly; and their transactions were conducted in the presence of brokers, who were to make a report to the governor and so prevent strife or disputes arising among them. It was also the duty of the governor to demand evidence from traders that they had paid custom duty on English exports. At the same time the regulated company afforded the government an instrument by which it could direct

trade into the proper channels and advance the interests of the state as they were then understood. Its great drawback was that it retarded the expansion of trade; it curtailed competition and checked enterprise. It is commonly said in its defence that the market was limited, and the demand for commodities fairly stable. In so far as this was the case the evil was not perhaps unduly great, but it is difficult to determine how far opportunities for individual enterprise and initiative were restricted to the real detriment of the oversea trade. The enemies of the chartered company were the interlopers who were outside their fellowship, but "intermeddled" with their trade. They appealed to the traditional "Englishman's liberty" and defied the Adventurers' monopoly. Their activities were most marked in the seventeenth century, but they were already in existence in the sixteenth.

52. MEDIAEVAL AND EARLY MODERN BUSINESS

ASSOCIATIONS'

The need of association was felt especially in the Middle Ages because it was necessary that a merchant or his representative should accompany his wares on the road. It was often difficult for a merchant to look after a commercial venture in person; he could not trust it to a hireling; and the slight development of the carrying and commission profession made it impossible for him to leave it to a class of persons who nowadays make it their business to attend to such matters. The merchant would choose by preference a member of his family, and family partnerships were the prevailing form of association at first. With the growth of commerce, however, greater freedom of association was demanded, and the group ceased to be limited by considerations of relationship.

By joining together, two or more men could follow different lines; one would stay at home while another could accompany the wares, and perhaps still another could attend to sales in a distant city. The advantages of this are apparent, and of not less importance are the benefits arising from the better utilization of capital. A person who had accumulated wealth, but who, on account of advanced age, physical disability, or other circumstance, could not himself employ it in commerce, would join with him a man who contributed to the enterprise the necessary business activity.

'Adapted by permission from Clive Day, A History of Commerce, pp. 115-17, 143-48. (Longmans, Green, & Co., 1912.)

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