The Trader.
Master.—What do you say, trader?
Trader.—I say that I am needful to the king, and ealdormen, and wealthy men, and to all the folk.
Master.—How?
Trader.—I get into my boat with my load, and I row over the waters and sell my things, and I buy things of great price which this land does not bring forth, and I bring them hither to you, with great danger, over the sea, and sometimes I suffer shipwreck, with the loss of all my things, barely escaping with my life.
Master.—What sorts of things do you bring to us?
Trader.—Cloaks, and silk, stones of great price, and gold, wonderful garments, and perfumes, wine and oil, ivory, and brass, copper and tin, sulphur and glass, and many things like them.
Master.—Will you sell your things here, for as much as you bought them there?
Trader.—I will not. For then what gain is there in my toil? But I will sell them here dearer than I bought them there, that I may get me some profit to feed me and my wife and my children.