With the opening of Mary’s reign the prospects of the Hansa brightened for a short time, only to be extinguished again before its close. The queen was naturally not prejudiced in favour of any policy of Northumberland’s, and she found good reasons for treating the Easterlings more leniently. Gresham, as a strong adherent of the duke’s party, fell under a cloud, from which he only emerged when found to be indispensable to the new Government. He was not reinstated in his position at Antwerp until the middle of November.[[129]] The emperor, with whose son Mary was already contemplating marriage, was opposed to the infliction of extreme penalties on those who were theoretically his subjects. His Flemings also were afraid that if the Merchant Adventurers were freed from all competition they would raise their prices at Antwerp. Influence was accordingly brought to bear upon the queen, with the result that orders were given for the restraint to be removed in September 1553, after a duration of nineteen months.[[130]] In spite of this the usual Act granting tonnage, poundage, &c., for the reign, passed in October, made no mention of the restoration of the Hanse privileges, and the customers of London continued to exact from them the usual duties payable by aliens. On complaint being made to the queen, she issued definite instructions that the Easterlings were to pay no more than in the time before the restraint. She further ruled that they should be allowed to export unwrought cloths up to the value of £6 per piece, the suspension of the statutes on this matter, which took place in 1547, having lapsed.[[131]]
The Hansa was now better off than it had been for many years, but the improvement was destined to be fleeting. The Merchant Adventurers did not accept the reversal of their good fortune without a struggle. They accumulated evidence of the malpractices of their enemies and clamoured their discontent with a vigour and pertinacity which showed that the Easterlings would never again enjoy an unchallenged supremacy in the North Sea trade. In December 1554 an indictment was drawn up, setting forth in detail the injuries suffered by the Crown and the merchants of England by reason of ‘the usurped trade and traffic which the Easterlings many years have used and yet do use’. It is typical of numerous complaints current at the time, and contains most of the stock charges and arguments against the Hansa, amongst which the question of the cloth export holds a preponderating place. Some of the details must be accepted with reserve: party statements, even in our own moral age, are not apt to be over-scrupulous in the handling of figures:
Beginning with a specification of the reduced duties restored since the lifting of the restraint, it went on to deplore the ‘decay’ of English shipping and mariners caused by the carrying trade of the Easterlings: where, in former times, thirty or forty large English ships would have been freighted at once, now only three or four small crayers were required. Next, the decay of the cloth manufacture, the diminishing sales at Blackwell Hall, the rise of prices of all commodities, the fall of the rate of exchange on Antwerp Bourse, and, in fact, all the commercial evils of the time, were ascribed to the same ‘usurped’ trade. The English merchants trading to the Low Countries were, in common with everything else in this gloomy screed, ‘much decayed’, and likely within few years to be utterly undone. The resident Germans being, by the rules of the Steelyard, bachelors, and the Englishmen having wife and children to support, the latter were again at a disadvantage. Their grievances beyond the seas were still more bitter. The Hansa, paying lower import duty, could afford to undersell them everywhere. Severe laws and exactions had driven out those Englishmen who formerly had warehouses in various German and Baltic ports. Not content with that, the Easterlings had followed them into the Low Countries, and had made great sales of English and foreign wares there. At Hamburg they had established a rival mart for English cloth which they caused to be dressed in that city, thus throwing English craftsmen out of work. The Hamburg mart, being nearer than Antwerp to the interior of Germany, was threatening to do away with most of the English trade to Antwerp.
Figures were then given in support of the foregoing and other charges. Thirty-one Hanse merchants had between them shipped 11,200 cloths to Antwerp in eleven months of the year 1554; thirty-four had in the same period sent 23,250 cloths to Hamburg, Lubeck, and other German towns. Twenty-seven persons, being only ‘shippers (skippers) and mariners’, had brought cargoes to England, but had taken no merchandise away in return; they must, therefore, have taken money out of the realm. Thirty-eight Dutchmen, not members of the Hansa, were mentioned, who had exported largely from England during the restraint, but who had not since shipped a single cloth; from which it was deduced that the Easterlings must now be colouring their goods. The charge of colouring was further supported by a tabulation of exports and imports showing that the Hansa had sent out of the country in eleven months goods to the value of £154,366 more than those they had brought in; since it was certain that they had not brought specie to anything like that amount, it was concluded that they must have coloured cloths for the Flemings and other heavily taxed aliens. But for this, the same cloth would have been purchased from the Merchant Adventurers at Antwerp. To cap the whole indictment, it was urged that the Easterlings studiously avoided chartering English shipping: during the period named they had freighted about forty vessels, not one of them English.[[132]]
The complaint was backed by a petition from the Merchant Adventurers to the Council, deploring the falling-off of their trade and asking for the following remedies: that the Hansa be forced to define precisely its own extent; that it be allowed to export to its own cities, only coloured cloths, ‘dyed, rowed, barbed, shorn, and fully dressed unto the proof’; and that its trade in English goods to the Low Countries be prohibited.[[133]] The petitioners pointed out that it was not sufficient merely to restrain the traffic to Antwerp, but also that in white cloth to the North German ports. The finishing of such cloth was becoming a rising industry in that region, while English and Flemish craftsmen were losing work. The inclusion of the Flemings in the argument was possibly a bid for the favour of King Philip, who, however, consistently supported the Hansa. But Philip had by no means an overwhelming influence in the conduct of English affairs. The queen, no doubt, usually gave way to him, but the Council, while rendering unlimited lip-homage, generally contrived to thwart his desires when they ran counter to their own; and, as time went on, their independence increased. Such at least was the case with regard to maritime and commercial matters.
The efforts of the Merchant Adventurers were crowned with success. On March 25, 1555, the Council issued orders that, pending the holding of a diet, the Hansa should export no cloth whatever to Antwerp, and to other places only one white cloth for every three coloured ones.[[134]] If they wished to make any shipments in excess of the above limits they were to pay the ordinary aliens’ customs rates. With regard to imports, they might import £1 worth of ‘foreign’ goods for every £3 of the produce of their own countries. This order was to continue in force until a diet should otherwise determine the matter.[[135]]
Thus, after eighteen months’ unrestricted enjoyment of their old privileges, the Easterlings found them once more virtually suppressed by an edict almost as severe as that of 1552. There could be no mistake as to the intention of the proposal for a diet. Its only result would be to tear up the treaty upon which their position was based, and to regularize their reduction to the status of ordinary aliens. They therefore refused to have anything to do with it. Yet they did not despair of securing a modification of the latest sentence and, twelve months later, an embassy arrived in London with proposals for a settlement. The ambassadors pointed out that their own cities produced little or nothing which could be sold in England, most of their merchandise being brought, by the travail of their merchants and sailors, from the remotest regions of the North and East. Accordingly they asked that the term ‘foreign goods’ (exoticae merces) might be interpreted to mean the goods of France, Spain, and Italy, and that they might be free to import other merchandise without restriction. With regard to the export of cloth from England, they declared that the distinction between white and coloured cloth was intolerable and, if persisted in, would exclude the majority of Easterlings from commerce with this country. They asked therefore for the restoration of their ancient liberty of exporting to their own cities any cloths, white or coloured, and, if under the value of £6, unwrought. The emphasis laid upon this demand makes it evident that cloth finishing was indeed a growing industry in North Germany, as the Merchant Adventurers had alleged, and that a supply of the rough fabric, obtainable only in England, was indispensable. In return for the above concessions the Hansa was willing to undertake to abstain altogether from selling English cloth in the Low Countries, merely reserving the right to export via Antwerp to its own cities without opening the packages in transit. The letter to Sir William Petre, in which the above proposals were enclosed, ends with a half-threatening recommendation that moderation and friendship would prove the better course, and that the English would do well not to make themselves unpopular on the Continent.[[136]]
The Hanse demands were countenanced by King Philip[[137]], who, as Regent of the Netherlands, was by no means satisfied that his subjects’ interests were identical with those of the English. In deference to her husband, Mary determined to make a show of concession, although it would seem that she had by this time been entirely won over to the Merchant Adventurers’ point of view. An answer was returned to the following effect: That Their Majesties were mindful of the ancient friendship between England and the Hansa, and were desirous to increase the same, but that the rights claimed had not in former times been generally admitted. As long as they had been used in moderation it was not a matter of much importance, but of late they had been excessively used, to the great prejudice of the revenue and merchants of England, and could no longer be tolerated. Therefore Their Majesties’ proposal was that a diet should be held in London within one year, for the settlement of all questions in a manner useful to both parties. In the meanwhile the absolute prohibition of the export of white cloth should be removed, the liberty of exporting one white cloth for every two coloured ones being substituted.[[138]] Nothing is here said about Antwerp, but it is evident from other sources that the Hansa was held to its offer to abstain from trading there.[[139]]
An agreement was concluded on the above lines on March 25, 1556, exactly a year after the second revocation of the privileges. It was to endure for one year only, or until the conclusion of the diet if held sooner. At the same time the Easterlings of the London establishment were granted relief from certain oppressive proceedings of the Lord Mayor, and were given the right to buy cloth in warehouses adjoining the Steelyard instead of at Blackwell Hall.[[140]]
In spite of all losses and interruptions the trade of the Hansa showed a wonderful vitality. By the end of 1556 they were shipping cloth through Antwerp in such quantities that their enemies could not help suspecting that they meant to ‘utter’ some of it there. The Council threatened to bind them over in the sum of £20,000, but they begged off and escaped with a strict admonition to do nothing fraudulent.[[141]] The drawback to all such agreements as that under which they were working was that the resources of the administration were insufficient for the supervision of intricate mercantile processes. Consequently it was as easy to evade—or be suspected of evading—a commercial treaty, as it became in later days to smuggle goods without paying duty. The fires of hatred and suspicion were now thoroughly kindled, and it was not long before England and the League were again at variance.