Rapin, p. 604.

g§. 6.

6. The Length and Breadth of Cloths made to be fold ||. No Cloths wrought beyond Sea fhall be brought into England. 4 Edw. IV. c. I.

7. The Wools of the Country beyond the Waters of Tweed and Teese, and of the Counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Richmondshire, Northumberland, and the Bishoprick of Durham only, and of none other Counties, fhall be carried to Newcastle to be tranfported to the Staple of Callice; and all other Shires to the Staple of Callice. c. 3.

8. No Perfon during three Years fhall buy or take any Promife of Bargain for Wools then not fhorn, of the growing of Berks, &c. before the fame be fhorn, and until Bartholomew Day following, but they which shall make Cloth or Yarn of them. c. 4. (See Ch. 14. §. 9. Ch. 15. §. 23.) 9. A. D. 1466. A Truce concluded with the Duke of Burgoigne, by which Commerce was reftored with his Dominions, which had been interrupted from the Year 1448.

A. D. 1467. Prolonged for 30 Years.

10. The Election, Oath, Authority, fearching and fealing of the Wardens of Worsted Weavers in Norwich and Norfolk. 7 Edw. IV. c. I. t

11. The Inhabitants in certain Hundreds in the County of Devon, may put Flocks in their Cloth made of the Wool growing in the fame Hundreds. c. 2. *

12. No

This A&t recites fundry Deceits and Abuses practifed in making Cloths in England, the Lofs to the Nation thereby, and Difcredit beyond Sea, the Importation, for that Rea fon, of foreign Cloths, and therefore ordains many Regu lations of the Manufacture, and makes all foreign Cloths except Welb and Irish, to be forfeited.

This Act recites, that divers Perfons in Norwich and Norfolk make untrue Wares in all manner of refpects o all manner of Worfteds, by which means they lose thei ancient Eltimation beyond Sea, &c. and therefore it wa ordained, &c. The Number of Wardens increased from faz to eight.

By the A&t 4 Ed. IV. c. 1.9 no Flocks might be p into any Cloth. Whereupon the Inhabitants of thefe Hu dreds, Sifton, Taveftock, and Rowburgh, Devonshire, repr fent, that they are like to be undone by this A&t; the ⚫ they have continually afed from the Time, whereof is

• Memory

12. No Woolen Yarn or Cloth fhall be carried beyond Sea unfulled. c. 3. t

13. In Confideration of 10000l. paid, in Part of Pay- Pryn.
ment of a greater Sum, due by the King, to Charles 8 Ed. IV.
Duke of Burgundy, for Marriage between the faid Duke

and Margaret his Sifter, and paid by the Mayor and Pryn.
Company of the Staple: The King by his Letters Pa- 8 Ed. IV.
tents, granteth, that they shall be paid the fame of the Sub-
fidy of Wools; the which Letters Patents, are by com-
mon Confent confirmed.

14. The Length, Breadth and Weight of broad fet Cloths
and ftrait fet Cloths made in Norfolk, Suffolk and Effex:
And they fhall be fealed by the Aulnager. 8 Edw. IV. c. I.
15. A. D. 1468. Upon the occafion of renewing
an ancient Alliance between England and Arragon, the
King is faid to have sent the King of Arragon a Present
of fome Ewes and Rams, which fo multiplied in Spain,
that it proved very detrimental to the Wool Trade in
England. Biondi, Habbington, Hall.

F 3

16. A. D. Memory, to mix Flocks in the Cloth made with the • Wool growing in those Hundreds; without which Flocks 'they could make no Cloth to fell, by reafon of the Groff⚫ nefs and Stubbornnefs of the faid Wool.' The Premifes confider'd, it was enacted (as above.)

+ One Reafon affign'd in the Act is, that of fuch Yarn and Cloth the King had no manner of Custom.

Rapin,

p. 605.

The Tranflator of Rapin, in his Note upon this Paf- Note 1.
fage, remarks, that tho' the King gave Licence and Liber-
ty for fome Cotefwold Sheep to be tranfported into Spain,
yet it is not thence to be inferred, that there were no
Sheep in that Country before. For the contrary is evi-
⚫dent from a Patent of King Henry II. granted the 31st of
his Reign to the Weavers of London, importing, that if
any Cloth were found to be made of Spanish Wool mixed
with English Wool, the Mayor of London fhould fee it
'burnt.' Whatever Truth there may be in this Account, or
fome others, of Sheep being fent at any Time from England
to Spain, the Notion grafted upon it, of Spain deriving their
Plenty of fine Wool from thence, is to the laft degree fabulous.
I fhould rather be of Opinion, that England had borrowed
fome Part of its Breed from thence, (as it certainly did the

whole from one Place or another: Because we find that

Spain and Portugal were anciently famous for Sheep and
Wool, and the former for fine Cloth, before the English knew
what it was to be cloathed. (See Chap. 3. §. 18.)

Thea

P. 610.
Note 6,

P. 617.

16. AD. 1470. At this Time the Merchants of the Staple were Perfons of great Authority, and had a great Influence upon the Affairs of the Nation.

17. During five Years, the Wools of certain Counties only, fhall be carried to Newcastle, and all others to Callice, upon Pain of Felony. 12 Ed. IV. c. 5. (See §. 20.) 18. A. D. 1472. It appears in feveral Papers of the Collection of the Publick Acts, that fome Difpute arose concerning the Truce of Commerce for thirty Years, between England and the Duke of Burgundy. An Affair of much the fame Nature, with the Hanfe Towns, created the King likewife fome Trouble. These Towns, whereof Lubeck, Hamburgh and Dantzick, were the three Principal, had obtained of the Kings of England several Privileges for their Merchants, because their Commerce

was

Then for the Patent of Hen. II. mentioned by the Translator, and for which he quotes Stow, that confirms my Lord Chief Juftice Coke's Account of the much higher Antiquity of the English Woolen Manufacture in England than 9 Hen. III. Which yet is higher, above 100 Years, than is allow'd by all our modern English Writers,

*It is allow'd, that the Goodness of the Spanish Wool is owing to a few English Sheep fent over into Spain as a Prefent by Hen. II. of England; or, as others will have it, though we think mistakenly, by Edw. IV. in 1465. Chambers's Diet. English Wool.

'Great was the Lofs and Hindrance which the Realm 9 Ed. IV. received by the Licence, which King Edw. III. gave unto King John of Arragon, for to transport into Spain a certain Number of Cote/wold Sheep, both in respect of • Wools and Woolfels. For we fee what great Quantity of Wools (bettered under their Climate) doth continually f. come from divers Places of the King of Spain's Dominion's into Fraunce and the Low Countries; efpecially into Flaunders, where divers fine Stuffs are made and brought unto us and other Nations.' England's View, &c. 1603.

Whence we learn not only that much Spanish Wool was carried into Flanders, but that in France, fo early as before the Year 1603, was a Woolen Manufacture, where Cloth was made with Spanish Wool.

I may also add here what Sir Richard Baker has inferted in his Chronicle, p. 112. B. In the fecond Year of this King's Reign, (Edw. I.) there happen'd the greatest Rot of Sheep in England that ever was known, which continued five and twenty Years; and came (as was thought)

by

was very advantageous to the English. This Affair produced an open War, which ended in a Treaty; and,

19. A Peace between the King and Merchants of Pryn. England, and the Duke of Hauns, or Merchants of the 13 Ed.IV. Stilliards, by which Reftitution was to be made on all Sides, and a free Intercourfe for ever to be had. Treaty was confirmed by Act of Parliament *.

This

20. An Alteration of Part of the Statute of 12 Ed. IV. c. 5. (See §. 17.) touching the tranfporting of Wools growing in Cumberland, &c. which shall hereafter be shipped at Newcastle, and from thence conveyed to Callice, or to any other Place at the King's Pleasure. 14 Ed. IV. c. 3.

21. An Alteration of Part of the Statute of 4 Edw. IV. c. 1. viz. Cloths, half Cloths, &c. fhall be fealed §. 6. with Wax at both Ends instead of Lead. And the Treafurer of England fhall be impowered to let the Aulnage to Farm upon good Security. 17 Edw. IV. c. 5.

22. No Ribbands, Laces, Corfes, Girdles, Calli Silk or twined, shall be brought into England to be fold, upon Pain of Forfeiture of the fame or the Value thereof. 22 Edw. IV. c. 3.

CHA P. XIII.
RICHARD the Third.

1. THE Length and Breadth of Cloths. Of what Abi-
lity an Aulnager must be, and what Cloths he may
1 Rich. III. c. 8. t

Seal.

by one infected Sheep of incredible Greatnefs, brought out of Spain by a French Merchant into Northumberland.' This, in a literal Senfe, is an incredible Story; but it may be an Allegory, denoting fome Prejudice, imagined at least, to England in the Price of Wool, by the then Importation either of that Commodity from Spain, or of Cloth made beyond Sea with Spanish Wool.

And the House called the Style Houfe, or Stillyard, Pryn. in the Parish of All-Hallows in London, by Authority of 13 Ed.IV. Parliament, was affigned to the Merchants of the Hauns, and to their Succeffors, for ever, yielding yearly to the Mayor of London 701. &c.'

This Statute contains many Regulations in 19 Sections. The 14th provides, that no Stranger fhall buy any Wool

which

2. In what fort Italian Merchants may fell their Merchandizes. Several Reftraints of Aliens. c. 9.

3. The Statute of 22 Edw. IV. c. 3. prohibiting wrought Laces of Silk to be brought into this Realm, continued for ten Years. C. IO.

4. Certain Merchandizes prohibited to be brought into this Realm ready wrought. (See Ch. 12. §. 3.)

Lord Verulam. Hen. VII. P. 59:

LIENS made Denizens, fhall pay fuch Customs as they did before. 1 Hen. VII. c. 2. *

2. A. D. 1487. November 9. A Parliament met. The Archbishop of Canterbury, as Lord Chancellor,

opening

which fhall pass through the Streights of Marrock, forted, clacked, or barked, (fee Chap. 11. §. 9.) but that the fame Wool be as it is clipped, and purely wound without Deceit. The 18th provides, that certain Claufes of the Statute extend not to any Cloth in Winchefter or Salisbury, Places not before mention'd on the like Occafion; which may be obferved as an Evidence of the Woolen Manufacture increafing in England.

This Act recites, that Merchants of Italy bought and fold Wool and Woolen Cloths within the Realm, and that many of them ufed the making of Cloth alfo within the fame. And therefore enacts, (§. 8.) That none of the faid Merchants of Italy fhall fell or barter any Woolen Cloths, Wools, &c. within the Realm, but shall have and convey the fame Wools, &c. over the Sea by the Streights of Marrock. And that no Alien fhall make Cloth within the Realm.' I suppose this to have been an Act of Popula rity at this Time, in the bloody Ufurper. How much a wifer Cour fe did Edw. III. take, in granting his Protection to foreign Manufacturers, &c. ?

The Policy of this is obvious; to prevent Strangers being made Denizens, merely for the Advantage of faving in Customs. This Law is repeated 11 Hen. VII. c. 14. and gives for Reason, that Denizens made use of their Pri vilege to colour other Goods, of Strangers, befides their

own.