The men of Coventry, a city which, in later mediæval times, stood fourth among the wealthy towns of England,[451] gained a livelihood by the buying and selling of wool and the making of cloth.[452] As early as 1398 the traffic in the frieze of Coventry[453] extended beyond the modest limits of the city itself. In that year two hundred pounds' worth, the export of one merchant, lay in the port of distant Stralsund, on the Baltic Coast,[454] and in London and other places the cloth was in great request during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
The men of mediæval Coventry naturally attached great importance to the maintenance and extension of the cloth trade in view of the wealth it brought. Special buildings were set apart for the staple traffic of the city. The Drapery and the Wool-hall, both in Bayley Lane, under the shadow of S. Michael's Church, were the recognised selling places for the raw and finished material; and a small illicit market went on in the porch of the church itself.[455] Hard by stood the Searching-house, a place devoted to the examination of all the cloth made by the city workpeople. Two weavers and two fullers, specially appointed for the purpose, overlooked the handiwork of their fellow-craftsmen; while six drapers were appointed to superintend these weavers and fullers, so as to guard against any exhibition of partiality or slackness in the execution of the task. If the material were sufficiently fulled and well woven, the city seal was attached to it in token of its genuine quality; but the searchers were straitly charged to warrant no piece that fell short of the standard excellence, and bad wares were returned to the owner to make therewith as good a bargain as he could.[456]
TRINITY LANE
An order of leet passed in 1518 gives very precise directions for the searching process.
ARMS OF CITY OF COVENTRY
"Hit is to be had in mynde that for a trueth of Clothmakyng to be had in this cite as foloeth, if it myght be folowed, and the execucion of the same to be don schortly, or els the cite wolbe so fer past that it wolbe past remedie to be recouered to eny welth or prosperite, hit is thought hit were good to have ij wevers & ij walkers sworn to make true serche of the wevers doyng & also of the walkers & to present the trueth; and also to be chosen vj drapers to be maisters, & ouerseers of the doyng of the serchers, that if some of them cannot a lesour to be at the serchyng at the dayes of the serchers, yet some of these vj maisters schall euer be ther. And by cause it were to great a besynes for the serchers to go to every mannes howse, hit is enacted at this lete to haue a howse of the gilde,[457] or of some other mannes nyghe the drapery doore, to be ordeyned well with perches to drawe ouer the clothes when they be thykked, and also weightes & ballaunce to wey the cloth, and when it cometh frome the walkers, the walkers to bryng it to the serchyng house, and to serche it, & to se it ouer a perche, and if it be good cloth as it owght to be in brede & lengh, that the cite may have a preise by hit & no sklaunder, then to sett upon hit the Olyvaunt in lede,[458] and of the bak of the seall the lengh of the cloth, by the which men shall perceyve and see it is true Coventre cloth, ffor of suerte ther is in London & other places that sell false & untrewe made cloth, & name hit Couentre cloth, the which is a gret slaunder to the cite than it deserveth by a gret partie. And if there be eny man that hath eny cloth brought to the serchyng house, what degre so ever he be of, if it be not able for the worschip of the cite to be let passe, let hym pay for the serche & lett hym do his best with hit, but set not the Olyvaunt upon it.