That load sterre, and chiefe chosen floure:
What hath by him our England of honour,
And what profite hath bin of his riches,
And yet lasteth dayly in worthines?
That pen and paper may not me suffice
Him to describe: so high he was of price
Aboue marchants, that set him one of the best:
I can no more, but God haue him in rest.
[Footnote 7: Or, lone.]
Now the principal matter.
What reason is it that we should goe to oste
In their countries, & in this English coste
They should not so? bat haue more liberty
Then we our selues now also motte I thee.
I would to gifts men should take no heede
That letteth our thing publicke for to speede
For this we see well euery day at eye,
Gifts and fests stopen our policie.
Now see that fooles ben either they or wee
But euer we haue the worse in this countree.
Therefore let hem vnto oste go here,
Or be we free with hem in like manere
In their countrees: and if it will not bee,
Compell them vnto oste, and yee shall see
Moch auantage, and moch profite arise,
Moch more then I can write in any wise.
Of our charge and discharge at her marts.
Conceiue wel here, that Englishmen at martes
Be discharged, for all her craftes and artes,
In Brabant of her marchandy
In fourteene dayes, and ageine hastily
In the same dayes fourteene acharged eft.
And if they bide lenger all is bereft,
Anon they should forfeit her goods all,
Or marchandy: it should no better fall.
And we to martis in Brabant charged beene
With English cloth full good and fayre to seene:
We ben againe charged with mercerie,
Haburdasher ware, and with grosserie:
To which marts, that English men call fayres,
Ech nation oft maketh her repayres:
English, and French, Lombards, Iennoyes,
Catalones, thedre they take her wayes:
Scots, Spaniards, Irishmen there abides,
With great plenty bringing of sale hides.
And I here say that we in Brabant bye,
Flanders and Zeland more of marchandy
In common vse then done all other nations:
This haue I heard of marchants relations:
And if the English ben not in the marts
They ben feeble, and as nought bene her parts.
For they byemore, and fro purse put out
More marchandie then all the other rowte.
Kept then the see, shippes should not bring ne fetch,
And then the carreys wold not thidre stretch:
And so those marts wold full euill thee,
If we manly kept about the see.
Of the commodities of Brabant and Zeland and Henauld and marchandy carried
by land to the martes. Cap. 8.
Yet marchandy of Brabant and Zeland
The Madre and Woad, that dyers take on hand
To dyen with, Garlike and Onions,
And saltfishe als for husband and commons.
But they of Holland at Caleis byen our felles,
And wolles our, that Englishmen hem selles.
And the chaffare that Englishmen doe byen
In the marts, that noe man may denien,
Is not made in Brabant that cuntree:
It commeth from out of Henauld, not by see,
But al by land, by carts, and from France,
Bourgoyne, Colem, Cameret in substance,
Therefore at marts if there be a restraint,
Men seyne plainely that list no fables paynt,
If Englishmen be withdrawen away,
Is great rebuke and losse to her affray:
As though we sent into the land of France
Ten thousand people, men of good puissance,
To werre vnto her hindring multifarie.
So ben our English marchants necessarie.
If it be thus assay, and we shall witten
Of men experte, by whom I haue this written.
[Sidenote: What our marchants bye in that cost more then all other.]
For sayd is that this carted marchandy
Draweth in value as much verily,
As all the goods that come in shippes thider,
Which Englishmen bye most and bring it hither.
For her marts ben febel, shame to say,
But Englishmen thither dresse her way.