Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE BUSINESS OF THE STAPLE. The government had a strict supervision over the business connected with the export of wool, wool-fells and leather. From the Statutes and the Rolls of Parliament it is possible to form a very clear idea of how the transactions in a staple were carried on. The Statute of the Staple of 1353 is the most detailed statement of the regulations for the home staples. By this Statute' all merchants, alien as well as denizen, were allowed to go about the country and buy up wool wherever they pleased, but they were obliged to take it to a staple before it could be exported.2 Wool-growers, however, were not obliged to wait for the merchants to come to them, but could take their wool to a staple if they chose.3 Before this date alien merchants had been prohibited from buying anywhere except atone of the staples/or at the markets and fairs;5 native merchants, on the other hand, had been allowed to buy anywhere, and if, after staying forty days at a staple the wool was not sold, they could take it elsewhere provided they did not sell to aliens.6 In 1332, native as well as alien merchants had been prohibited from selling anywhere except at one of of the staples.7 There was great danger when the merchants were free to go about the country buying up wool, that they would make agreements among themselves to keep down the price. They 1 S. R., 27 Edw. III, st. 2. ' Ibid., 27 Edw. IlI, st. 2, c. 3. Ibid. 4C. P. R., 1327-1330, pp. 98-9. Ibid., 1330-1334, pp. 362-3. 'fiid., 1327-1330, pp. 98-9. Ibid., 1330-1334, pp. 362-3. were prohibited from doing so under penalty of forfeiture and imprisonment.1 Nevertheless, alien merchants in particular took such advantage of the poverty of the people that the commons finally in 1...