In the reign of Edward I. there were mints in London, Canterbury, Kingston-on-Hull, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Bristol, and Exeter, a system which produced endless disorders and complaints as to light weight and bad money. It was not until the reign of Elizabeth that all the mints were reduced to one, and that in the Tower of London. Gold coins were introduced by Henry III., but they were not liked, and, as it was optional to take them, they were not in common use until the reign of Edward III., who originated the noble, the half noble, and the quarter noble.
When the King or Queen communicated, and on Twelfth Day, an offering was made of a coin called a Besant, which was afterwards redeemed by the King’s Chamberlain. The Besant was a circular piece of hammered gold engraved on one side with the Trinity and on the other with the Virgin Mary. Those worked for James I. were different. The representation of the King showed him kneeling before an altar, with four crowns before him, and the legend Quid retribuam Domino pro omnibus quæ tribuit mihi? On the other side was a lamb lying beside a cross with the words Cor contritum et humiliatum non despiciet Deus.
On all occasions of state, such as a Coronation, a marriage, a baptism, a funeral, or the installation of a Knight of the Garter, it was customary for the King to offer a Besant. The custom is said to have fallen into disuse when a certain Dean of Windsor refused to allow the Besant to be redeemed with money. The moneyer to whom was entrusted the engraving of the Besant was named after the coin. Thus we find in the reign of Henry II. that the moneyers, as officers especially dependent on the King, were assessed separately. The Moneyers of London paid a tallage ad filiam maritandam. They were five in number, Achard, who paid six shillings, Lefwine Besant, who paid five marks, Aylwin Finch, who paid two marks, and two others.
Let us next ask what were the goods which London merchants had to offer for exchange and for exportation?
Henry of Huntingdon, writing in the reign of Henry II., says that England possessed mines of copper, iron, lead, and silver, the last metal in very small quantities. “Silver, however, is received from the neighbouring ports of Germany, with which an extensive commerce is carried on by the Rhine in the abundant product of fish and meat, as well as of fine wool and fat cattle which Britain supplies.... Britain also furnishes large quantities of very excellent jet of a black and brilliant hue.” One observes that he does not include slaves among the exports. That trade had therefore disappeared. The statement of this Chronicle stands good for four hundred years. The staple exports of England continued to be wool, hides, iron, and tin. Sometimes grain was also exported. England, for many centuries, was the greatest wool-producing country of Europe. The chief reason appears to have been the comparative peace enjoyed by the island at a time when the rest of Western Europe was continually devastated by wars of all kinds, namely, civil wars, foreign wars, wars between barons, wars between towns. The Englishman was the only farmer who could keep his sheep. Therefore it happened that the German Ocean was always covered with light ships sailing to and fro laden with wool. Flanders was the manufacturing country which received the wool; when there was a break in the friendly relations of England and Flanders half the Flemish people were thrown out of work. England sent abroad money by means of wool: the tribute to the Pope was paid in sacks of wool sent to Bruges and there sold. In the year 1343 the Deans of York, Lichfield, and Salisbury, and the Archdeacon of Canterbury, who were all non-resident Italians, received their stipends in wool. Even the taxes were calculated by sacks of wool.
Many efforts were made to make England a manufacturing country, but for a long time in vain. Henry I. established the cloth fair at St. Bartholomew’s. Edward III. brought weavers from Flanders and settled them at Norwich. One has only to stand before the Guildhalls of Bruges and Ghent, or in the splendid Hall of the Drapiers of Ypres, to understand how great an industry was this of the cloth manufacture, which the English people were so slow in learning.
Up to the fifteenth century the English ships went up to Bruges by canal. When in the sixteenth century Maximilian dammed the canal at Sluys, the English vessels then went to Antwerp.
The chief town of the wool trade was called the Staple. It was changed from time to time: Bruges, St. Omer, Calais, Antwerp, were all in succession Staples. When Antwerp was sacked in 1567 and 1585, London took its place.
The imports may be classified under the division of the countries whence they came. Thus, from Spain the port of London received figs, raisins, bastard wine, dates, liquorice, Seville oil, grain, Castile soap, wax, iron, wool, wadmoles, skins of goats and kids, saffron, and quicksilver. But these goods were not received from Spain direct, but through Bruges, the great Flemish emporium, where the English bought the Spanish merchandise. Portugal exported wine, wax, grain, figs, raisins, honey, cordovan, dates, salt, hides. Prussia exported beer, bacon, wax, osmunds, copper, steel, bowstaves, peltry, pitch, tar, boards, flax, Cologne thread, fustian, canvas, cards, buckram, etc. The Genoese brought over cloth of gold, silk, pepper, woad, oil, woodashes, cotton, alum, and gold. The Venetians brought all kinds of spices and groceries, sweet wines, apes, and other foreign articles, and many articles of luxury.
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