Yorkshire Almanac Edward IV orders the London merchant adventurers to allow their Yorkshire colleagues fair access to Low Countries markets for their woollen cloth

13 November 1478: Edward IV orders the London merchant adventurers to allow their Yorkshire colleagues fair access to Low Countries markets for their woollen cloth

Maud Sellers. 1918. The York Mercers and Merchant Adventurers 1356-1917. Durham: Surtees Society. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

To John Pickering [Pykkeryng] one of our courtmasters of this our realm haunting [frequenting] the parties off Flanders.

Trusty and well beloved, we greet you well, letting you wit [know] that no [now?] we late we have received a grievous complaint, showed unto us on the behalf of our well beloved subjects, the mercers of our city of York, towns of Hull, and Beverley, and Scarborough, and other places of the north parties of this our realm, containing among other things that ye, contrary to the ancient customs of old time, use, entreat, and demean them, coming into those parties of Flanders for fete [fairs] of merchandise, unto their great loss, hurt, and prejudice, as all at large is expressed in the said complaint, whereof we send you a copy, enclosed within these our letters. Wherefore, we woull [?] and also straightly charge you, that from henceforth ye demean and entreat the said mercers in those parts beyond the see, with all favour and honesty, according to the said ancient customs, so and in such wise as they have no cause to complain eftsoons [again]. And unto the time that ye have showed or make to be showed before us, and our said counsel, sufficiently the cause why they ought not so to be entreated, not failing herein as ye lust to do us singular pleasure, and would answer to us at your peril. Given under our privy seal, at our palace of Westminster, the 13th day of November, [1478].

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Anne Sutton summarises the complaint of the northerners against Merchants of the Nation of England trading in the Parties of Brabant, Flanders, Holland and Zeeland, as the Company of Merchant Adventurers of England was formally known:

In September/October 1478, the merchants of York, Hull, Beverley, Scarborough and other northern ports complained to Edward IV and the royal council about how they were treated by their fellow merchant adventurers overseas. Edward may have been in or near York in September, and this may have sparked the petition. First, they asserted that in the past it had been customary for two or more governors to be elected, one for London and one for north of the Trent. At the moment, they went on, John Pickering was governor for London (their description) and he was interfering with the adventurers from the northern ports. In the past it had been the northern governor who had imposed dues for shipping to the Low Countries based on the amount of goods shipped by each man; now, Pickering was levying a set fee. In the past men had been free to choose their own houses in the mart towns, but, as Pickering had secured a grant of a house for English merchants from the town of Antwerp in 1474, he expected all of them to sell near each other. This, they asserted, was to make the goods of the Northerners appear to disadvantage, so that they sold less well. They also maintained that the normal admission fee to the company had been 4d. Flemish but he had raised it to 4s. for a man still in his apprenticeship, 24s. for a man out of apprenticeship, and 50s. for a man who had never served an apprenticeship with a merchant of the company. Finally, Pickering was keeping all the dues to himself, so that no man would stand for election as governor for the northern towns.

Also:

These merchants congregated at the four great fairs or marts of Brabant, at Antwerp and Bergen op Zoom: the Easter or Paas Mart at Bergen op Zoom which ran from Maundy Thursday, the Sinxsen or Whitsun fair at Antwerp — which was the greatest fair of the four — the Bamis Fair, also at Antwerp in October, and the Cold Mart at Bergen op Zoom at the end of the year from November.

And:

In 1478, Edward IV said ‘behave and be nice’, and did not interfere. The 1478 complaints were not that serious and were perhaps thrown together because Edward was in the area of York at the time. The royal decision reveals the wisdom of a King who understood trade; he knew that merchants exaggerated, that they assiduously employed rhetoric in their quarrels, and that they managed best when left to rule themselves. Edward had a sophisticated knowledge of trade and a sophisticated knowledge of England and the Low Countries (his sister had been married to the ruler of the Low Countries and was the beloved stepmother of the new Duchess in 1478), and he knew the value of cross-Channel trade. A major commercial treaty was also renegotiated in 1478 between England and the Low Countries which for the first time referred specifically to the company of English merchants who traded there and their governor; men like Pickering had undoubtedly been involved. The benefit accrued to all the adventurers of England, Northerners as well as southerners. Edward could therefore divide the rhetoric from the facts. He did not merely favour London: between 1478 and 1480 he administered the London adventurers, especially the mercers, a very expensive thrashing for embezzling his customs. Pickering and his fellows did not have the requisite rhetoric to talk themselves out of that (Sutton 2009).

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Comment

In September/October 1478, the merchants of York, Hull, Beverley, Scarborough and other northern ports complained to Edward IV and the royal council about how they were treated by their fellow merchant adventurers overseas. Edward may have been in or near York in September, and this may have sparked the petition. First, they asserted that in the past it had been customary for two or more governors to be elected, one for London and one for north of the Trent. At the moment, they went on, John Pickering was governor for London (their description) and he was interfering with the adventurers from the northern ports. In the past it had been the northern governor who had imposed dues for shipping to the Low Countries based on the amount of goods shipped by each man; now, Pickering was levying a set fee. In the past men had been free to choose their own houses in the mart towns, but, as Pickering had secured a grant of a house for English merchants from the town of Antwerp in 1474, he expected all of them to sell near each other. This, they asserted, was to make the goods of the Northerners appear to disadvantage, so that they sold less well. They also maintained that the normal admission fee to the company had been 4d. Flemish but he had raised it to 4s. for a man still in his apprenticeship, 24s. for a man out of apprenticeship, and 50s. for a man who had never served an apprenticeship with a merchant of the company. Finally, Pickering was keeping all the dues to himself, so that no man would stand for election as governor for the northern towns.

Also:

These merchants congregated at the four great fairs or marts of Brabant, at Antwerp and Bergen op Zoom: the Easter or Paas Mart at Bergen op Zoom which ran from Maundy Thursday, the Sinxsen or Whitsun fair at Antwerp — which was the greatest fair of the four — the Bamis Fair, also at Antwerp in October, and the Cold Mart at Bergen op Zoom at the end of the year from November.

And:

In 1478, Edward IV said ‘behave and be nice’, and did not interfere. The 1478 complaints were not that serious and were perhaps thrown together because Edward was in the area of York at the time. The royal decision reveals the wisdom of a King who understood trade; he knew that merchants exaggerated, that they assiduously employed rhetoric in their quarrels, and that they managed best when left to rule themselves. Edward had a sophisticated knowledge of trade and a sophisticated knowledge of England and the Low Countries (his sister had been married to the ruler of the Low Countries and was the beloved stepmother of the new Duchess in 1478), and he knew the value of cross-Channel trade. A major commercial treaty was also renegotiated in 1478 between England and the Low Countries which for the first time referred specifically to the company of English merchants who traded there and their governor; men like Pickering had undoubtedly been involved. The benefit accrued to all the adventurers of England, Northerners as well as southerners. Edward could therefore divide the rhetoric from the facts. He did not merely favour London: between 1478 and 1480 he administered the London adventurers, especially the mercers, a very expensive thrashing for embezzling his customs. Pickering and his fellows did not have the requisite rhetoric to talk themselves out of that (Sutton 2009).

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Comment

Smeaton’s scheme did not prosper. John Timperley:

Various schemes had been suggested for cleansing the dock of the mud brought in by the tide; one was by making reservoirs in the fortifications or old town ditches, with the requisite sluices, by means of which the mud was to be scoured out at low water; another by cutting a canal to the Humber, from the west end of the dock, where sluices had been provided, and put down for the purpose, when it was proposed to divert the ebb tide from the river Hull along the dock, and through the sluices and canal into the Humber, and so produce a current sufficient, with a little manual assistance, to carry away the mud. Both of these schemes were however abandoned, and the plan of a horse dredging machine adopted; this work began about four years after the Old dock was completed, and continued until after the opening of the Junction dock. The machine was contained in a square and flat bottomed vessel 61 feet 6 inches long, 22 feet 6 inches wide, and drawing 4 feet water: it at first had only eleven buckets, calculated to work in 14 feet water, in which state it remained till 1814, when two buckets were added so as to work in 17 feet water, and in 1827 a further addition of four buckets was made, giving seventeen altogether, which enabled it to work in the highest spring tides. The machine was attended by three men, and worked by two horses, which did it at first with ease, but since the addition of the last four buckets, the work has been exceedingly hard.

There were generally six mud boats employed in this dock before the Humber dock was made; since which there have been only four, containing, when fully laden, about 180 tons, and usually filled in about six or seven hours; they are then taken down the old harbour and discharged in the Humber at about a hundred fathoms beyond low water mark, after which they are brought back into the dock, sometimes in three or four hours, but generally more. The mud engine has been usually employed seven or eight months in the year, commencing work in April or May.

The quantity of mud raised prior to the opening of the Junction dock, varied from 12,000 to 29,000 tons, and averaged 19,000 tons per annum; except for a few years before the rebuilding of the Old lock, when, from the bad and leaky state of the gates, a greater supply of water was required for the dock, and the average yearly quantity was about 25,000 tons. As the Junction dock, and in part also the Humber dock, are now supplied from this source, a greater quantity of water flows through the Old dock, and the mud removed has of late been about 23,000 tons a year.

It may be observed, that the greatest quantity of mud is brought into the dock during spring tides, and particularly in dry seasons, when there is not much fresh water in the Hull; in neap tides, and during freshes in the river, very little mud comes in (Timperley 1842).

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