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Rh cast-iron, copper and brass goods, calico, gunpowder, oil, paper, articles in felt, flour, leather and biscuits. Wels stands on the site of the Roman Ovilaba, and was in the 8th century the residence of the dukes of Lambach-Wels. The actual town dates from the 11th century.

WELSER, the name of a famous family of German merchants, members of which held official positions in the city of Augsburg during the 13th century. The family first became important during the 15th century, when the brothers Bartholomew and Lucas Welser carried on an extensive trade with the Levant and elsewhere, and had branches in the principal trading centres of south Germany and Italy, and also in Antwerp, London and Lisbon. The business was continued by Antony (d. 1518), a son of Lucas Welser, who was one of the first among the Germans to use the sea route to the East, which had been discovered by Vasco da Gama. The Welsers were also interested in mining ventures; and, having amassed great wealth, Antony's son Bartholomew (1488–1561) lent large sums of money to Charles V., receiving in return several marks of the imperial favour. Bartholomew and his brother Antony, however, are chiefly known as the promoters of an expedition under Ambrose Dallinger (d. 1532), which in 1528 seized the province of Caracas in Venezuela. With the consent of Charles V., this district was governed and exploited by the Welsers; but trouble soon arose with the Spanish government, and the undertaking was abandoned in 1555. After Bartholomew's death the business was carried on by three of his sons and two of his nephews; but the firm became bankrupt in 1614. Bartholomew's niece Philippine (1527–1580), the daughter of his brother Francis (1497–1572), married the Archduke Ferdinand, son of the emperor Ferdinand I.

Perhaps the most famous member of the Welser family was Antony's grandson, Marcus (1558–1614). Educated in Italy, Marcus became burgomaster of Augsburg, but was more distinguished for his scholarship and his writings. The most important of his many works is his Rerum Boicarum libri quinque, dealing with the early history of the Bavarians, which was translated into German by the author's brother Paul (d. 1620). His works, Marci Velseri opera historica et philologica, were collected and published with a biography of Marcus by C. Arnold (Nuremberg, 1682). The Augsburg branch of Welsers became extinct in 1797, and a branch which settled at Nuremberg in 1878; but the Ulm branch of the family is still flourishing.

See K. Habler, Die überseeischen Unternehmungen der Welser (Leipzig, 1903); W. Böheim, Philippine Welser (Berlin, 1894); and A. Kleinschmidt, Augsburg, Nürnberg und ihre Handelsfürsten (Cassel, 1881).

 WELSH LAWS, or. There is, comparatively speaking, no great distance of time between the leges barbarorum and the Laws of Wales, while the contents of the latter show a similar, nay almost the same, idea of law as the former; and, apart from the fact that Wales became permanently connected at the end of the 13th century with a Teutonic people, the English, it has been noticed that in Wales Roman and Germanic, but no traces of a specific Welsh, law are found. King Howel Dda (i.e. the Good), who died in 950, is the originator of the Welsh code. In the preface it is stated that Howel, "seeing the laws and customs of the country violated with impunity, summoned the archbishop of Menevia, ether bishops and the chief of the clergy, the nobles of Wales, and six persons (four laymen and two clerks) from each comot, to meet at a place called y Ty Gwyn ar Dav, or the white house on the river Tav, repaired thither in person, selected from the whole assembly twelve of the most experienced persons, added to their number a clerk or doctor of laws, named Bllgywryd, and to these thirteen confided the task of examining, retaining, expounding and abrogating. Their compilation was, when completed, read to the assembly, and, after having been confirmed, proclaimed. Howel caused three copies to be written, one of which was to accompany the court for daily use, another was deposited in the court at Aberfraw, and a third at Dinevwr. The bishops denounced sentence of excommunication against all transgressors, and soon after Howel himself went to Rome attended by the archbishop of St David's, the bishops of Bangor and St Asaph and thirteen other personages. The laws were recited before the pope and confirmed by his authority, upon which Howel and his companions returned home. " All this could not have been effected before Howel had subjected Wales to his own rule, therefore not before 943. We have three different recensions of the code, one for Venedotia or North Wales, another for Dimetia or South Wales, a third for Gwent or North-east Wales. We do not know how far these recensions were uniform in the beginning; but a variance must have occurred shortly after, for the manuscripts in which the codes are preserved differ greatly from each other. The code was originally compiled in Welsh, but we have no older MSS. than the 12th century, and even the earliest ones (especially those of the Venedotia recension) contain many interpolations. The Latin translations of the code would seem to be very old, though even here we have no earlier MSS. (belonging to the Dimetia recension) than the 13th century. The Latin text is much shorter than the Welsh, but we do not know whether this abridgment was made on purpose, or whether the translation is an imitation of an earlier text. The texts present only a few traces of Roman law, which, however, are evidently additions of a later period.

The whole body of Welsh laws was published in one volume by Aneurin Owen under the direction of the commissioners on the public records as Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales (London, 1841). The text of Howel's laws has been edited by A. W. Wade-Evans as Welsh Medieval Law (London, 1909).

WELSHPOOL (or Welchpool, so called because Pool, its old name, led to confusion with Poole, in Dorsetshire; Welsh Trallwm), a market town and municipal and contributary parliamentary borough of Montgomeryshire, N. Wales, in the upper Severn valley, on the Montgomeryshire canal and the Cambrian railway, 8 m. N. of Montgomery, and 182 m. from London. Pop. (1901) 6121. Its buildings and institutions include the old Gothic church of St Mary, the Powysland Museum, with local fossils and antiquities, and a library, vested (with its science and art school) in the corporation in 1887. Powis Castle (about a mile S.W. of the town) is the seat of Earl Powis, and has been in the possession of the Herberts for many generations. The flannel manufacture has been transferred to Newtown, but Welshpool has tweeds and woollen shawls, besides a fair trade in agricultural produce, malting and tanning. The town returned a member to parliament from 1536 to 1728, was again enfranchised in 1832, and now (with Llanfyllin, Llanidloes, Montgomery, Machynlleth and Newtown) forms the Montgomery district of parliamentary boroughs. A charter was granted to the town by the lords of Powis, confirmed by James I. (1615), and enlarged by Charles II. The castle was begun, in or about 1109, by Cadwgan ab Bleddyn ab Cynfyn (Cynvyn), and finished by Gwenwynwyn; in 1196 it was besieged, undermined and taken by Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury. Retaken by Gwenwynwyn in 1197, it was dismantled by Llewelyn, prince of N. Wales, in 1233. It then remained for several years in the hands of the lords of Powis. During the Civil War, the then lord Powis, a royalist, was imprisoned, and the castle was later demolished. Powis Castle, being of red sandstone, is usually called in Welsh Castell Coch (red castle). In the park is Llyn du (black pool), whence Welshpool is said to be named.

WEM, a market town in the northern parliamentary division of Shropshire, England, 11 m. N. of Shrewsbury on the London & North Western railway. Pop. (igoi), 3796. It is a pleasantly situated town with a considerable agricultural trade. The church of St Peter and St Paul retains a Norman tower. Flour-milling and tanning are the chief industries. In the neighbourhood is the splendid domain of Hawkstone. In the reign of Edward the Confessor Wem was held as four manors, but at the time of the Domesday Survey William