The Freight Of One Of
These Is Stated To Have Been Worth 6000 Crowns In Gold.
The improvement of
the woollen manufactures may be inferred from the following circumstance:
alum is very useful to fullers and dyers.
About the year 1422, the Genoese
obtained from the Greek emperor the lease of a hill in Asia Minor,
containing alum: England was one of the chief customers for this article;
but it undoubtedly was imported, not in English, but in Genoese vessels. In
the year 1450 the Genoese delivered alum to the value of 4000l. to Henry
VI. Bristol seems to have been one of the most commercial cities in
England. One merchant of it is mentioned as having been possessed of 2470
tuns of shipping: he traded to Finmark and Iceland for fish, and to the
Baltic for timber and other bulky articles in very large ships, some of
which are said to have been of the burden of 400, 500, and even 900 tons.
Towards the latter end of the fifteenth century, the parliament, in order
to encourage English shipping, (as hitherto the greatest part of the
foreign trade of England had been carried on by foreign merchants in
foreign vessels,) enacted a species of navigation law, and prohibited the
king's subjects from shipping goods in England and Wales on board any
vessel owned by a foreigner, unless when sufficient freight could not be
found in English vessels.
Such are the most instructive and important notices respecting the state
and progress of English commerce, which occur prior to the discovery of the
Cape of Good Hope and America. We shall now proceed to give similar notices
of the commerce of Scotland, Ireland, France, and the other countries of
Europe; these, however, shall be very brief and few. In the middle of the
twelfth century, Berwick, which then belonged to Scotland, is described as
having more foreign commerce than any other port in that kingdom, and as
possessing many ships. One of the merchants of this town was distinguished
by the appellation of _the opulent_. Inverluth, or Leith, is described
merely as possessing a harbour, but no mention is made of its trade.
Strivelen had some vessels and trade, and likewise Perth. There was some
trade between Aberdeen and Norway. There were no trading towns on the west
coast of Scotland at this period; but about twenty years afterwards, a
weekly market, and an annual fair were granted by charter to Glasgow.
It is probable that the foreign commerce of Scotland, being confined to the
east coast, was principally carried on with Norway: with which country,
indeed, Scotland had intimate connection; for we do not find any notice of
foreign merchants from other countries trading to or settling in Scotland,
till towards the end of the thirteenth century, when some Flemish merchants
established a factory at Berwick. Wool, wool-fells, hides, &c. were the
chief articles of export; salmon also was exported. Of the importance and
value of the trade of this place we may form some idea, from the
circumstance, that the custom duties amounted to upwards of 2,000_l_.
sterling; and of 1,500 marks a year settled on the widow of Alexander
prince of Scotland, 1,300 were paid by Berwick.
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