English nobles. So, on the settlement, as mentioned above, of the differences with Prussia and the Hanse Towns, in 1409, it was arranged that all the payments on both sides should be made in the same coin, as if it were a common European currency. On another occasion, indeed—the payment of 100,000 English nobles to the Duke of Burgundy, in 1431—it is expressly noted that the money was estimated at its current rate.[1]
A few years before the commencement of the present period, all export or import of merchandise in any other than English ships had been prohibited, under pain of the forfeiture of vessel and cargo.[2] Like many of the other mercantile laws of those times, however, this first navigation act passed by the English parliament seems to have been by no means strictly enforced. In the documents relating to the quarrel with the Hanse Towns and Prussia, foreign ships are repeatedly mentioned as being laden with goods which were the property of English merchants, and, apparently, exports from England. Woollen cloth is the article that most frequently occurs; another is wine, which, however, could only be legally exported under the royal licence. A considerable trade was now carried on with Venice. In 1409 permission was granted by King Henry to the merchants of Venice to bring their carracks, galleys, and other vessels laden with merchandise, into the ports of England and his other dominions, to transact their business, to pass over to Flanders, to return to his dominions, to sell their goods without impediment or molestation from his officers, to load their vessels with wool, cloth, or other English merchandise, and to return to their own country. This licence, which was often renewed, shows us what was the nature of the Venetian trade with England at this time. It was in part what is called a carrying trade, one of its objects being the interchange of the commodities of England and Flanders. The Byzantine
