England to buy up. They sometimes, it is asserted, would buy on credit, and then sell the goods at Bruges, for ready money, five per cent, under what they had cost, for the sake of having the money to lend out at usury during the interval before their payments should become due. It appears, from some expressions of the author, that at this time English merchants also traded to Venice.
The English, according to this writer, bought greater quantities of goods in the marts of Brabant, Flanders, and Zealand, than all other nations together; though these marts or fairs were also frequented by the French, the Germans, the Lombards, the Genoese, the Catalonians, the Spaniards, the Scots, and the Irish. The purchases of the English consisted chiefly of mercery, haberdashery, and groceries; and they were obliged to complete them in a fortnight—a previous space of the same length having been allowed them for the sale of their cloth and other imports. The merchandise of Hainault, France, Burgundy, Cologne, and Cambray, was also brought in carts over-land to the markets of Brabant.
A trade to Iceland for stock-fish had been long carried on from the port of Scarborough; but for about twelve years past a share had been taken in it by Bristol and other ports. The author of the poem, however, states that, at the time when he wrote, the vessels could not obtain full freights. The Danish government in this age repeatedly attempted to prevent the English from trading to the coasts of Iceland.[1]
A curious fact is mentioned in this poem respecting the people of Britany. The inhabitants of St. Malo especially, it is affirmed, were still accustomed to roam the seas as pirates, very little regarding the authority of their duke, and often made descents upon the eastern coast of England, plundering the country, and exacting contributions or ransoms from the towns.
Among the documents in the Fœdera occur various
- ↑ See Macpherson, i. 629, 650, 666.
