[328] These and many other particulars about English trade with Venice are to be found in Rawdon Brown’s “Calendars of State Papers . . . in the Archives of Venice,” London, 1864 (Rolls); see also J. Delaville le Roulx, “La France en Orient au XIVe siècle,” Paris, 1886, vol. i. p. 199.
[329] For the first time in 1397–98. He was a liberal lender of money to Kings Henry IV and Henry V.
[330] Th. Wright, “Political Poems,” Rolls Series, ii. 202; also edited by Herzberg and Pauli, Leipzig, 1878.
[331] Bk. xx, chap. 7: “Esprit de l’Angleterre sur le Commerce.”
[332] “Rolls of Parliament,” 25 Ed. III, year 1350, and Ed. I or II anno incerto, vol. ii. p. 232 and vol i. p. 475.
[333] Text B, pas. v. l. 232.
[334] Statute 2 of 27 Ed. III, A.D. 1353. Canterbury was made a staple town “en l’onur de Saint Thomas,” “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 253, same year. As an example of the changes affecting the staple system, see the statute 2 Ed. III, chap. 9 (A.D. 1328), by which all staples were abolished—for a time.
[335] “Pedis pulverisati curia. Ea est quæ in nundinis constituitur, ad nundinalium rixas litesque celerrime componendas. . . . Dictum præcipue de mercatoribus vagabundis, qui nundinas pagatim insectantes omnes discurrunt provincias, nec sistendi locum agnoscunt, sed de his etiam qui ex omni parte ad nundinas confluunt.” H. Spelman, “Glossarium archaiologicum,” ed. tertia, Londini, 1687, p. 455.
[336] These and other particulars about the way in which fairs were managed at Westminster and Winchester are to be found in a petition with an inquest of the year 1302, 30 Ed. I, in the “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. i. p. 150. The Winchester Fair on St. Giles’ hill, “Montem sancti Egidii,” was one of the most famous English fairs. Langland mentions it, and gives a graphic account of the cheating that went on among unscrupulous merchants. “Visions,” Text C, pas. vii. l. 211.
[337] See “Charter of Edward III [as to] St. Giles’ Fair, Winchester,” ed. G. W. Kitchin, London, 1886.