Next to [Cofin Lane] is the Stelehouse, or Steleyard (as they term it) a Place for Merchants of Almaine [German States] that used to bring hither, as well Wheat, Rye, and other Grain, as Cables, Ropes, Masts, Pitch, Tarr, Flax, Hemp, Linen Cloth, Wainscots, Wax, Steel and other profitable Merchandises. Unto these Merchants, in the Year 1239, Henry III at the request of his brother, Richard Earl of Cornwall, King of Almaine, granted that all and singular the Merchants have a House in the City of London, commonly called Guilda Aula Theutonicorum, should be maintained and upholden through the whole Realm, by all such Freedoms, and free Usages or Liberties, as by the King and in his noble Progenitors Time, they had enjoyed....
And in the 10th Year of the same Edward II Henry Wales being Maior, a great Controversie did arise between the said Maior and the Merchants of the Haunce of Almaine, about the Reparations of Bishopsgate, then likely to fall; for the said Merchants enjoyed divers Privileges, in respect of maintaining the said Gate, which they now denied to repair ... a Precept was sent to the Maior and Sheriffs, to destrain the said Merchants to make the Reparations.... And so they granted 210 Marks sterling to the Maior and Citizens and undertook that they and their Successors should (from Time to Time), repair the said Gate, and bear the third Part of the Charges in Money and Men to defend it when need were.
And for this Agreement, the said Maior and Citizens granted to the said Merchants their Liberties, which, till of late they have enjoyed; as, namely, amongst other, that they might lay up their Grain, which they brought into this Realm, in Inns, and sell it in their Garners, by the Space of forty Days after they had laid it up, except by the Maior and Citizens they were expressly forbidden because of Dearth, or other reasonable Occasions. Also they might have their Alderman, as they had been accustomed, foreseen always, that he were of the City, and presented to the Maior and Aldermen of the City, so oft as any should be chosen, and should take an Oath before them to maintain Justice in their Courts, and to behave themselves in their Office according to Law, and as it stood with the Customs of the City....
Their Hall is large, builded of Stone, with three arched Gates towards the Street, the middlemost whereof is far bigger than the other, and is seldom opened, and the other two be mured up: The same is now called the Old Hall. Of later time, to wit ... Richard II they hired one House next adjoining.... This also was a great House, with a large Wharf on the Thames. And the way thereunto was called ... Windgoose Alley, for that the same Alley is (for the most part) builded on by the Stilyard Merchants (p. 204).
About the time of King Henry IV the English began to trade themselves into the East Parts. At which the Easterlings, or Merchants of the Dutch Hauns, were so offended that they took several of their Ships and Goods.... The result of which in short was this, that the said King Henry IV did revoke Parts of the Privileges of the aforesaid Dutch Company as were inconsistent with the carrying on of a Trade by the Natives of this Realm: And ... grant his first Charter to the [English Merchants trading into the East Land].
In the first and second of Philip and Mary, was granted the Charter to the Russia Company afterwards confirmed by ... Queen Elizabeth. Until whose time, though the Trade of this Nation was driven much more by the Natives thereof, than had been formerly, yet had the Society of the Dutch Hans at the Steel Yard much the advantage of them by means of their well-regulated Societies and the Privileges they enjoyed. Insomuch that almost the whole Trade was driven by them, to that degree that Queen Elizabeth herself, when she came to have a War, was forced to buy the Hemp, Pitch, Tar, Powder, and other naval Provisions; which she wanted, of Foreigners: and that too at their Rates. Nor was there any Stores of either in the Land, to supply her Occasions on a sudden, but what at great Rates she prevailed with them to fetch for her, even in time of War: Her own subjects then being but very little Traders. To remedy which she fell upon the Consideration [of] encouraging her own subjects to be Merchants ... and cancelling many of the Privileges of the afore-mentioned Dutch Hans Society, the Trade in general by degrees came to be managed by the Natives of this Realm. And consequently the Profit of all these Trades accrued to the English Nation. Trade in general and English Shipping was encreased; her own Customs vastly augmented and, what was at first the great End of all, obtained, viz., that she had constantly lying at home, in the Hands of her own Subjects, all sorts of naval Provisions and Stores; which she could make use of, as her Occasions required them without any dependence on her Neighbours for the same. And thus by means of encouraging the ... Merchant Adventurers ... was the Trade at first gained from the Foreigners.... Then is one other great House ... which in the fifteenth of Edward IV was confirmed unto the said Merchants (p. 205).
In the year 1551 ... through Complaint of the English Merchants, the Liberty of the Steelyard Merchants was seized into the King’s Hands, and so it resteth.
CHANGES IN LONDON
(Stow, Book II, p. 1)
This great and populous City contains in the whole six or seven hundred Streets, Lanes, Alleys, Courts and Yards of Name, and generally very full of Inhabitants. Before the late dreadful Fire of London, the Houses within the Walls were computed to be about 13000; and that is accounted not a sixthe Part ... and in these late Years whole Fields have been converted into Builded Streets, ... as the great Buildings about the Abbey of Westminster, Tuthill Fields, and those Parts; Then the greatest part of St. James’ Parish, ... all the Streets in the Soho Fields,. .. also all Bloomsbury ... all Hatton Garden ... the Great and Little Lincoln’s Inn Fields, all Covent Garden ... etc., etc., and in the East and North Parts, the Spittle Fields, etc. All which were only Fields and Waste Grounds.