XVI. 1377. CHA P. rank, was never regarded by them. The commons make continual complaints of the multitude of robberies, murders, rapes, and other diforders, which, they fay, were become numberlefs in every part of the kingdom, and 'which they always afcribe to the protection that the criminals received from the great. The king of Cyprus, who paid a vifit to England in this reign, was robbed and stripped on the highway with his whole retinue 114. Edward himself contributed to this diffolution of law, by his facility in grant. ing pardons to felons from the folicitations of the courtiers. Laws were made to retrench this prerogative", and remonftrances of the commons were prefented againft the abufe of it : But to no purpose. The gratifying of a powerful nobleman continued ftill to be of more importance than the protection of the people. The king also granted many franchises, which interrupted the courfe of juftice and the execution of the laws **? 117 COMMERCE and industry were certainly at a very low ebb during this period. The bad police of the country alone affords a fufficient reafon. The only exports were wool, fkins, hides, leather, butter, tin, lead, and fuch unmanufactured goods, of which wool was by far the most confiderable. Knyghton has afferted, that 100,000 facks of wool were annually exported, and fold at twenty XX3 p. 170. 116 Cotton, p. 51. 62. .70. 160. 114 Walling. 119 XVI. 1377% pounds a fack, money of that age. But he is CHAP widely mistaken both in the quantity exported and in the value. In 1349, the parliament remonftrate, that the king, by an illegal impofition of forty fhillings on each fack exported, had levied 60,000 pounds a year 113: Which reduces the annual exports to 30,000 facks. A fack contained twenty-fix ftone, and each stone fourteen pounds "; and at a medium was not valued at above five pounds a fack 20 that is, fourteen or fifteen pounds of our prefent money. Knyghton's computation raises it to fixty pounds, which is near four times the prefent price of wool in England. According to this reduced computation, the export of wool brought into the kingdom about 450,000 pounds of our prefent money, instead of fix millions, which is an extravagant fum. Even the former fum is fo high, as to afford a fufpicion of fome mistake in the computation of the parliament with regard to the number of facks exported. Such miftakes were very ufual in thofe ages. 121 EDWARD endeavoured to introduce and promote the woollen manufacture by giving protection and encouragement to foreign weavers and by enacting a law, which prohibited every one from wearing any cloth but of English fabric ". The Z 4 1377. CHAг. parliament prohibited the exportation of woollen XVI. goods, which was not fo well judged, efpecially while the exportation of unwrought wool was fo much allowed and encouraged. A like injudicious law was made against the exportation of manufactured iron "". 128 It appears from a record in the exchequer, that in 1354 the exports of England amounted to 294,184 pounds feventeen fhillings and twopence: The imports to 38,970 pounds three fhillings and fix-pence money of that time. This is a great balance, confidering that it arofe wholly from the exportation of raw wool and other rough materials. The import was chiefly linen and fine cloth, and fome wine. England feems to have been extremely drained at this time by Edward's foreign expeditions and foreign fubfidies which, probably was the reafon, why the exports fo much exceed the imports. THE firft toll we read of in England, for mending the highways, was impofed in this reign: It was that for repairing the road between St. Giles's and Temple-Bar 224 IN the first of Richard II. the parliament complains extremely of the decay of shipping during the preceding reign, and affert, that one fea-port formerly contained more vessels than were then to be found in the whole kingdom. This calamity, they afcribe to the arbitrary feizure of 123 28 Edw. III. cap. 5. p. 520. 124 Rymer, vol. v. 125 126 XVI. 1377. fhips by Edward, for the fervice of his frequent CHA P. expeditions "". The parliament in the fifth of Richard renew the fame complaint "", and we likewife find it made in the forty-fixth of Edward III. So falfe is the common opinion, that this reign was favorable to commerce. THERE is an order of this king, directed to the mayor and sheriffs of London, to take up all fhips of forty tun and upwards to be converted into fhips of war 127 128 THE parliament attempted the impracticable fcheme of reducing the price of labor after the peftilence, and also that of poultry A reaper, in the first week of Auguft, was not allowed above two pence a day, or near fix pence of our present money; in the fecond week a third more. A mafter carpenter was limited through the whole year to three pence a day, a common carpenter to two pence, money of that age It is remarkable, that, in the fame reign, the pay of a common foldier, an archer, was fix-pence a day; which, by the change, both in denomination. and value, would be equivalent to near five fallings of our present money ". Soldiers were 125 127 129 230 Cotton, p. 155. 164. Rymer, vol. iv. p. 664. 25 Edw. III. cap. 1. 3. 726 128 Dugdale's Baronage, vol. i p. 129 was 784. Brady's hift. vol. ii. App. N. 92. The pay of a man at arms quadruple. We may therefore conclude, that the numerous. armies, mentioned by hiftorians in thofe times, confifted chiefly of ragamuffins, who followed the camp, and lived XVI. 1377. CHAP. then inlifted only for a very fhort time: They lived idle all the reft of the year, and commonly all the reft of their lives: One fuccefsful campaign, by pay and plunder, and the ranfom of prifoners, was fuppofed to be a fmall fortune to a man; which was a great allurement to enter into the fervice 131 THE ftaple of wool, wool-fells, leather, and lead, was fixed by act of parliament in particular towns of England". Afterwards it was removed by law to Calais: But Edward, who commonly deemed his prerogative above law, paid little regard to these ftatutes; and when the parliament remonftrated with him on account of those acts of power, he plainly told them, that he would proceed in that matter as he thought proper It is not eafy to affign the reason of this great anxiety for fixing a ftaple; unlefs perhaps it invited foreigners to a market, when they knew beforehand, 133 by plunder. Edward's army before Calais confifted of 3 1,094 men; yet its pay for fixteen months was only 127,201 pounds. Brady, ibid. 11 Commodities feem to have rifen fince the Conqueft. Inftead of being ten times cheaper than at prefent, they were in the age of Edward III. only three or four times. This change feems to have taken place in a great measure fince Edward I. The allowance' granted by Edward II. to the earl of Murray, then a prifoner in Nottingham castle, is one pound a week; whereas the bifhop of St. Andrews, the primate of Scotland, had only fix-pence a day allowed him by Edward I. 27 Edw. III. 132 133 Cotton, p. 117. |