[43. TRADE. PART I.]
Forestall their market: that is, to buy things before they arrived at the market, so as to sell them at a higher price.
Lübeck: a large port in north Germany in the Baltic.
staples, originally all kinds of raw produce, came to be applied only to wool. Staples Inn was once a wool-market.
instead of selling our wool: Edward III. brought Flemish weavers into England to encourage manufactures. Till then England produced and exported wool to Antwerp and other manufacturing centres, but did not make it into cloth.
Hamburg was a member of the Hanseatic League.
The screen was presented to the Church of All Hallows the Great, Thames Street, in 1710, by the Hanseatic merchants.