Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/136

 128 REVIEWS OF BOOKS January a fraternity of St. Mary into which not only mercers and merchants of York but craftsmen of the city and traders from Hull, Newcastle, and Whitby were later on found entering as members. It would be extremely interesting if any connexion could be traced between the establishment of this gild and the reaction against free trade and the statute of staples which, after Poictiers, led in 1359 to a revival of that company of merchants at Bruges from which the staplers and the adventurers of later days traced their descent. The changes indicated in the second charter, that of 1430, present a close parallel to those observable in the London companies of the same period. This time it is not the fraternity (which is now dedicated to Holy Trinity) that is incorporated but the mistery of mercers, which has become an exclusive body of mercers and merchants ; yet no trade privileges are explicitly conferred nor is there any reference to commerce with the Low Countries. The first such reference occurs in 1474, when the fellowship fixes the amount to be paid for ' hansynge ', apprentices, and masters at each of the four marts of Bruges, Antwerp, Barrow, and Middelburg at IQd. and 2s. respectively ; and a document follows dated 1478 which furnishes an entirely new clue to the early history of the merchant adventurers. In the course of a complaint against the London adventurers, the mercers of York, Hull, Beverley, Scarborough, ' and all other of the north parties ', state that under the charter granted to English merchants in the Low Countries it has been customary to recognize two distinct sets of members, one belonging to London and the other to the towns north of Trent, each of which elected a separate governor and taxed itself for his expenses and for general purposes, laying on each merchant a charge proportionate to his trade ; but that of late John Pickering, a London mercer, had been elected sole governor, had raised the entrance fees, had taxed the northern members disproportionately, and had imposed new and rigid regulations as to the sale of their goods at the marts much to the disadvantage of the northern trade. Now a dual arrangement of this kind is proposed in the ' Arguments for Establishment of Home Staples in 1319 ', published by the late Mr. Bland in 1914,* and is foimd in operation during the negotiations for the foreign staple in 1336. The fact that it is found also in the government for the fifteenth-century merchants trading to Brabant, Holland, Zeeland, and Flanders, and not yet known as adventurers, gives us an additional reason for believing that that body is descended from the staplers left at Bruges, when, in 1363, the wool staple was set up at Calais. It is noteworthy that the charter of 1407 speaks of the election not of a governor but of governors. The case of Pickering ought certainly to help, as Miss Sellers suggests, in explaining the earlier case of Governor Obray and the charter of 1462. That charter, according to its own preamble, was a settlement dictated by the king of disputes amongst the merchants, and Obray was appointed governor by royal authority with powers as extensive as those later exercised by Pickering ; but Obray was discharged from office three months later and the charter was not included in the inspeximus of the company's charter under Charles II. It is quite possible that both incidents represent attempts made by Edward IV to get more control of foreign trade for fiscal purposes in aUiance with the Londoners. ' Ante, xxix. 94.