Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/490

 their countrymen taken from their ships and thrown into prison. The merchants of Lynn, especially, "complained pitifully that four of their ships, with cargoes on board, consisting chiefly of cloth and wine, were captured on their way to Prussia, some of their people being slain, while some were grievously injured, and others put to extreme ransoms."

On the other hand, the complaints of the Hanse Towns merchants were not confined to losses sustained by the piratical acts of the cruisers, who, after due inquiry, really appear to have been the greatest delinquents; they alleged also not a few infringements by English traders of their chartered privileges. They urged that many new charges and duties had been exacted from their goods and shipping; that, besides the ancient duty of 3s. 4d. upon every sack of wool, a charge of 1s. 7d. was imposed by the town of Calais; that the officers of the Customs over-rated the value of their goods, exacting duties for various kinds of cloths formerly exempted by the charter of merchants; that, in order to remove their goods from one port of England to another, they had to pay duties twice over; and that needless delays were created, whereby they often lost the market for their goods, which were, further, sometimes damaged by lying three or four weeks on the wharves. This, they asserted, was mainly due to the neglect of the officers of the Customs. The English commissioners retorted that the Hanse merchants had combined to destroy the commerce and manufactures of England by