Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/483

 landing, that they would invest half of the proceeds in wool, hides, cloths, lead, tin, or other English commodities; while another law passed in the same year provided that a merchant, drawing a bill of exchange on Rome or elsewhere, should lay out the whole money received for it within three months on articles of English growth or manufacture. But perhaps the most curious and unmeaning Act of this year was one which, in order "to keep up the price of wool," forbade any Englishman to buy that article from any one but the owners of sheep or of the tithes, unless in the staple, or to purchase wool, except on his own account for sale at the staple, or for manufacture into cloth: he was also forbidden to export either wools, hides, or wool-fells; although, by the same Act, full permission to do so when and how they pleased was granted to foreigners. By another Act, the merchants of England were obliged to export their merchandise in English vessels only; and the ship-owners were desired to carry them for "reasonable freights"!

Few reigns, in proportion to its extent, were likewise more prolific for the issue of letters of marque than that of Richard II. They were freely granted, for the purpose of revenging or compensating hostile aggressions on individuals, and also to enable the English creditor to recover debts, not only from foreign countries, but likewise from natives of his own country, whose property he could thus conveniently confiscate. Among the most conspicuous of these were the letters granted in 1399 to John de Waghen, of Beverley, against the subjects of the