Mention has been frequently made of Fairs. There is nothing now in existence which in the least resembles one of the great Fairs of this time. The shops, which were sheds or stalls or booths covered with canvas, were ranged side by side in streets, called after the kind of goods sold in them. Thus, there was the “Spicery,” the “Portery,” the “Drapery.” The Fair lasted for two or three weeks. It was a fair for exchange as well as for sale; the wholesale merchants frequented the Fair, exchanging silks for wool or skins; and the retailers spread out their wares to catch the people. Everything was offered for sale, while the Fair, which always contained a certain element of feasting, was amply provided with taverns, eating and drinking shops, musicians, dancers, tumblers, and jugglers. When the necessity for the Fair gradually ceased, the entertainments remained. Yet down to the ’ fifties, in the nineteenth century, among the booths there were always some which kept up the semblance of serious trade; between the toy-stalls and the gingerbread were booths of cheap books and booths of hosiery and clothing.

Let us go on to consider the conduct of the trade of London Port. And, first, as regards the English merchants. When trade begins, all the regulations of trade for its security, such as the enforcement of debts, the due carrying out of contracts and agreements, must begin at the same time. Hence there was created in every trading town an organised Chamber of Commerce, anciently called the Merchant Gild. Of this organisation I will speak in another place (see vol. ii. pt. i. ch. ix.). This Chamber or association of traders assumed, as possessed by Royal Charter, executive powers, it passed laws, regulated trade in every branch, ordered prices, received foreign merchants and cargoes from abroad, appointed the time of market, and punished offenders. The Gild may have exercised all these functions not only in a prehistoric but also in a non-historic manner. For in London we have no Merchant Gild ever spoken of.

Among the foreign traders are mentioned in the Liber Albus the Cologne merchants, the Hanse merchants, and merchants of Lorraine, Bavaria, Lemberg, Flanders, Antwerp, Bruges, Louvain, Perugia, Lucca, Lombardy, Tuscany, Spain, Portugal, Catalonia, Navarre, Provence, Aquitaine, Quercy, Gascony, Bordeaux, Genoa, and the Italian Societies of Frescobaldi and Morori. Liberties are also mentioned as being granted to the Merchants of Douay, Malines, and St. Omer; also to numerous cities and corporations in England; and allocations were granted to the citizens of Dublin and Cork.

All these merchants occupied their own houses, in which they were expected to live by themselves, not associating more than was necessary with the citizens, who, as far down as the nineteenth century, were wont to hustle and abuse any foreigner who ventured unprotected into the streets. The men of Germany had the Domus Teutonicorum, the Steelyard, where is now Cannon Street Terminus: the men of Bordeaux had the “Vintry”: the Flemings their own house near the Vintry. The history of the trade of London for five hundred years is largely composed of the jealousies and quarrels between the foreign merchants and the merchants of London.

In the year 1000, strangers from France, Normandy, Rome, Flanders, Liège, and the Emperor’s men, were permitted to trade at Billingsgate. In the twelfth century a fleet, carrying wine as its principal cargo from Germany, arrived at London once a year. It lay off the bank two ebbs and one flood. This means that the vessels came up the river with the flood, and lay off during the following ebb and one tide afterwards. During this time the men were not permitted to land, nor to sell their cargo. The King’s officers came on board and purchased what was wanted for the King’s use—gems, plate, tapestry, as well as wine. After this the traders were allowed to sell to merchants, but not to go to the open market nor to sell by retail. When they carried their wares on shore the Sheriff examined them, and they had to pay scavage, i.e. “showage.” They could sell for the space of forty days, after which they had to go away. But one suspects that the law was not administered with great strictness. Some things they were forbidden to buy, as lamb skins: and they were not to buy more than three live pigs!

In 1217, a convention was made between the merchants of London, Amiens, and other towns. Those of the convention were permitted to load and to unload, to warehouse in the City, and to sell to citizens, not to foreigners. In return they were to pay fifty marks a year to the Sheriffs. One of them might keep a hostel for a year, but not longer. They were not to take provisions out of the City. These foreigners contributed £100 towards the construction of a conduit from Tyburn into the City. Before this time, in 1194, Richard I. had granted to Cologne merchants the right to attend all Fairs “saving the franchise of the City of London.”

The expansion of trade and the creation of industries in England owed a great deal to the spirit of enterprise made possible, or even engendered, by the new municipal life of the towns. All over the country the towns asked for and obtained charters after the fashion of London. There are everywhere, up to the end of the thirteenth century, signs of activity and of prosperity: churches were rebuilt; bridges were thrown over rivers; walls were repaired; gates, wharves, aqueducts were constructed; new trading-ports arose such as Lynn, Sandwich, Southampton, for instance; new manufactures were started at Norwich, Worcester, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham, Reading, and elsewhere; there are no complaints of poverty and misery; there is no Piers Plowman for London; the merchants are seen to be buying country estates; and whereas in the twelfth century England exported little besides her wool, in the fifteenth century there are entries of industry and manufactures everywhere. And for all these, London was the recipient and the distributor.

The Hanseatic League was in existence as far back as the eighth century. The members began to trade with London apparently very soon after that date, and were esteemed as merchants who introduced wares very useful and otherwise difficult to procure. In the reign of Ethelred, A.D. 979, the “men of the Emperor” were accounted worthy of “good laws.” They settled by the river-side, where they obtained a house near Dowgate. Either before or after their settlement the “men of Cologne” settled next to them. After disputes between the two Houses they were amalgamated and formed the Gildhalla Teutonicorum. Their merchandise consisted mainly of wheat, rye and other grain, cables, masts, pitch, tar, flax, hemp, linen cloth, wainscots, wax, steel, and other “profitable merchandize.” (Stow).

Not only the citizens of London but the country people looked on the aliens with hate. No royal proclamation was of avail to protect them against this hatred. Partly, no doubt, they were hated because they were foreigners; but mainly, it is certain, because they were monopolists and could charge what they pleased. Thus when Wat Tyler and his merry men held possession of the City they murdered all the foreign merchants, especially the Flemings, dragging them even from the altars. Chaucer says (Nonnes Prestes Tale):—

The Hanseatic League was most powerful: to it belonged all the important towns of North Germany, it had ships numbering hundreds, and controlled the whole trade of the Baltic, that is to say, of Scandinavia, Russia, Poland, and Germany, and exercised in England for its own purposes the influence which everywhere belongs to the purse. The members advanced money to the King on large interest; they got him out of his difficulties, for a consideration. Thus Edward III., in return for money advanced, let the Black Prince’s tin mines in Cornwall to the Germans; and, for the same consideration, he gave them a number of farms for a thousand years. One need not here follow the Gildhalla Teutonicorum and its various charters and privileges. It is sufficient to note that the continual wars of the English—civil wars, as in the reign of Stephen, Henry III., Edward II., Richard II., Henry VI., Edward IV. and Richard III.; foreign wars with Scotland and France; the repression of rebellion as in Ireland and in Wales—checked the growth of commercial enterprise and made it impossible for the English merchant to contend against the League. Yet when the Merchant Adventurers began, early in the fifteenth century, they attacked the Hanseatic trade in Norway and in Denmark and in Flanders. There was fierce resistance; in Bergen the English merchants were murdered; on the open sea the “Rovers” or pirates attacked and destroyed the English ships; the Hanseatics pillaged the English coasts. The English power at sea was unable to put down these acts of piracy or war. The King was obliged to invite the arbitration of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, who accorded to the English merchants the substantial benefit of trading in the Baltic, but restored to the League all their former privileges and more. This arbitration was called the Treaty of Utrecht. It remained in force till the final expulsion of the League a hundred years later.

The Gildhalla Teutonicorum or Steelyard covered a large area in the most crowded part of London. Its river front extended from Cousin Lane—a narrow lane close to Dowgate Dock on the west—to Allhallows Lane on the east; and from the river to Thames Street. This area contained about 110,000 square feet. It was surrounded by a strong wall; the chief building was a large hall called the Guildhall in which the merchants and their clerks took common meals; the north front looking on Thames Street possessed three arched gates, of which for greater security the two side gates were walled up. Above the three gates were the following inscriptions:—

(1) “Haec domus est laeta semper bonitate reputa:
Hic pax, hic requies, hic gaudia semper honesta.”

(2) “Aurum blanditiae frater est natusque doloris:
Qui caret hoc moeret, qui tenet hoc metuit.”

(3) “Qui bonis parere recusat, quasi vilato fumo in flammas cecidit.”

Another strong building was the residence of the Master overlooking the river. Between the two houses was the garden planted with fruit-trees and vines. Here later the merchants sold Rhenish wine. The quay, which extended along the river front, was provided with a large crane, and all the goods were landed on this quay. The life led by the residents was monastic in its character. They were unmarried; no women were allowed within the walls; cleanliness was strictly enforced; every man was bound to have a complete suit of armour; they were not allowed to fence or to play tennis with Englishmen, in order to avoid any occasion for a brawl; and at a certain hour the gates were closed. Disputes arose between the company of Merchant Adventurers and the Hanseatic merchants. In 1552, in the reign of Edward VI., the monopoly of the Hanseatic League was taken from them. The following is the entry made by King Edward VI. in the resolution of the Privy Council:—

“Feb. 23. A decree was made by the board, that, upon knowledge and information of their charters (those of the Stiliard), they had found: First, that they were no sufficient corporation; Secondarily, that, when they had forfeited their liberties, King Edward IV. did restore them on this condition, that they should colour no strangers’ goods (i.e. that they should pass no goods of other foreigners through the Customs as if they were their own), which (yet) they had done. Also, that, whereas in the beginning they shipped not past eighty cloths, after 100, after 1,000, after that 6,000, now in their names was shipped 14,000 cloths in one year, and but 1,100 of all other strangers. For these considerations sentence was given that they had forfeited their liberties, and were in like case with other strangers.”

They continued to trade like other foreign merchants until the year 1599, when Elizabeth ordered them to depart; yet many remained and became merged in the general population of London. At the time of the Great Fire the buildings were entirely destroyed; but the site still belonged to the merchants, who obtained a charter from Charles II. “granting permission to erect a church for themselves on a spot where one had formerly stood.” What was that church? It was not Allhallows the Great, which was rebuilt out of the coal dues. Nor Allhallows the Less, which was never rebuilt. Perhaps there was a chapel within their walls which these pious merchants desired to restore; but they never carried out that laudable intention. It was resolved in 1599 that the House should be taken from them and converted into an office for the Queen’s Navy. Yet in 1666 we find that the site still belongs to them. The two statements are difficult to reconcile.

But there were other foreign merchants besides the Hansards. The men of Genoa had privileges. Bordeaux sent fleets containing wine; Rochelle sent wine; Lorraine sent also an annual fleet containing wine; there were ships from Genoa and Venice. Whatever they brought, they carried away wool. England paid her Peter’s Pence in wool; she paid for everything that she bought of these merchants in wool.

As regards the trading fleets, consider the “Flanders Fleet” of Venice. This splendidly organised merchant service consisted of a large number of galleys, each manned by 180 oarsmen not apparently slaves, but Sclavonians who had their own fraternity at Southampton: each ship had also on board thirty archers well equipped for purposes of defence. This fleet, which was first sent out in 1307, “visited Syracuse, Majorca, the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and proceeded thence to England and to the low countries.” They did not always call at London, but always at Southampton, which was their chief port in England. There still remains at the church of North Stoneham a stone marking the burial-place of certain Sclavonian oarsmen who died while at Southampton. “Sepultura de la Schola de Sclavoni” (Cunningham). Arrived at the Downs the fleet broke up and repaired to London, Rye, Winchelsea, Sandwich, and other places.

The Italian Quarter in London was near the Tower. These Italians, men of Pisa, Lucca, Genoa, and Venice, were called “Galleys men” because they came up the river in galleys, and the quay where they landed their wines and other merchandise was Galley Quay. Stow says:—

“In this lane of old time dwelt divers strangers, born of Genoa and those parts; these were commonly called galley men, as men that came up in the galleys brought up wines and other merchandise, which they landed in Thames St. at a place called Galley key: they had a certain coin of silver amongst themselves, which were halfpence of Genoa and were called Galley halfpence: these halfpence were forbidden in the 13th of Henry IV., and again by Parliament in the 4th of Henry V. It was, that if any person bring into this realm halfpence, suskinges, or dodkins, he should be punished as a thief: and he that taketh or payeth such money shall lose a hundred shillings, whereof the king shall have the one half, and he that will sue the other half. Notwithstanding in my youth, I have seen them pass current, but with some difficulty, for that the English halfpence were then, though not so broad, somewhat thicker and stronger.” (Survey, Book II.)

In the year 1353 Edward III. sent a Royal Injunction to the Mayor and Sheriffs concerning two Genoese, named Francisco of Genoa, and Panimo Guilliemi servant of Francisco de Spinola of Genoa. These foreigners had opened a wine-shop consisting of two cellars, in one of which was stored red and white wine, and in the other sweet wine (of Sicily, Crete, Cyprus, Gaza, etc.). The City officers, fearing that these foreigners would mix the wine, which was supposed to be extremely prejudicial to health, made them shut their shop, and the Mayor took the oath of the two men that they would not mix the sweet and the white wine, before he suffered them to continue in their trade.

The Flemings were always in closer commercial relation with London than any other nation. They were the greatest buyers of wool; they came over here to settle first when William the Conqueror’s Queen protected them; next, on the invitation of Edward III. The Weald of Kent was full of wealthy Flemings in the fifteenth century; it is probable that Caxton in his boyhood spoke Flemish as well as English, because he was born in the Weald; and though these men remained among us for many generations they did not become English. They were considered hard in their money dealings; it was against their honour and good name that the famous “Stews” were peopled with Flemish women; and when Jack Straw’s rebels held the City, one of the first things they did was to murder the Flemings.

There is another point of view from which we may consider the foreign element of London, that of the so-called Caursini. The origin of the name is generally assumed to be the town of Cahors. But why the Italians of London should be called natives of Cahors is not easy to understand. When merchants of Cahors are mentioned it is never in connection with the great financial operations conducted by the Italians, nor have the Caursini, mentioned in contemporary documents, any connection at all with the city of Cahors. Another, and perhaps a more likely derivation, is from an Italian family called Caursini. It should be noted also that Matthew Paris in the curious specimen of a deed or agreement between these merchants and a certain Religious House calls them “of the City of ...” not mentioning Cahors. In another place he distinctly calls them Transalpines.

The Italians came to London in the reign of King John, not as traders, but as agents for the collection of the Papal revenue, especially that part of it which was contributed, very much against their will, by the Religious Houses. They came chiefly from Sienna, Lucca, and Florence. They were members of trading companies, apparently of the joint stock kind, of which all the substantial citizens of the flourishing towns of Lombardy were members and shareholders, or fellow adventurers.

Their work as Papal agents was very soon supplemented by financial operations on their own account. They became in communication with the monasteries, not only on account of the Pope’s exactions, but also in connection with the sale of wool, which constituted the chief wealth of the Religious. They were able to give a higher price than could be obtained from other merchants. They could advance money for the building which was continually going on in the monasteries. When a House had to send representatives to Rome the Caursini gave them letters of credit which enabled them to bribe the officers of the Papal courts.

But—a fact of far greater importance—their resources, which seemed practically inexhaustible, enabled them to supply money to the English Kings for nearly two hundred years.

They lent money at high rates of interest; but, as usury was forbidden by the Church, and a thing hateful and in bad repute, they disguised the real nature of their transactions. The actual money advanced was repaid without any interest; but the lender was paid by various arrangements called by different names, but all meaning the same thing, though of course there was no affectation of not understanding the true nature of the transaction. The Italians were regarded, especially by ecclesiastics, with detestation. Matthew Paris says of them:—

“In these days prevailed the horrible nuisance of the Caursines, to such a degree that there was hardly any one in all England, especially among the bishops, who was not caught in their net. Even the King himself was held indebted to them in an incalculable sum of money. For they circumvented the needy in their necessities, cloaking their usury under the show of trade, and pretending not to know that whatever is added to the principal is usury, under whatever name it may be called. For it is manifest that their loans lie not in the path of charity, inasmuch as they do not hold out a helping hand to the poor to relieve them, but to deceive them; not to aid others in their starvation, but to gratify their own covetousness.” (Giles’s translation.)

He gives also a specimen of their ordinary form of agreement:—

“To all who shall see the present writings—the Prior and Convent of .... Health in the Lord.... Be it known to you that we have received on loan, at London, for the purpose of usefully settling matters concerning us and our church, from such an one, and such an one, for themselves and their partners, citizens and merchants of the city of ..., 104 marks of good and lawful money sterling, each mark being computed at 13 shillings and 4 pence sterling. For which 104 marks, we, in our own name and in the name of our church, do declare that we are quit, and do protest that we are fully paid, altogether renouncing any exception of the money not being reckoned, and paid, and handed over to us, and also the exception that the said money has not been converted to our own uses and to the uses of our church. And the aforesaid one hundred and four marks sterling, in the manner and to the number aforesaid, to be reckoned to the said merchants, or to one of them, or to their certain emissary, who shall bring with him these present letters, on the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula, namely, the first day of the month of August, at the New Temple, London, in the year of our Lord’s incarnation one thousand two hundred and thirty-five, we promise by lawful covenant, and bind ourselves, in our own name and in that of our church, that we will pay and discharge in full. Adding moreover this condition, that if the aforesaid money shall not be paid and discharged at the place and term aforesaid, as has been said, we promise from that time, at the term always before completed, and bind ourselves by the same covenant, to give and render to the aforesaid merchants, or their certain emissary, every two months, for every ten marks, one mark of the said money, in recompense for losses, which losses and expenses these merchants might incur or receive therefrom, so that the losses and expenses and principal may effectually be claimed, as they have been stated above, and the expenses of one merchant, with one horse and one servant, wherever the merchant shall be, until the full payment of all the aforesaid. And the expenses incurred and to be incurred, for recovering the same money, we will render and restore to the same merchants, or one of them, or their certain emissary. Which recompense for losses, interest, and expenses, we promise the said merchants in no wise shall be reckoned towards the principal of the said debt; and not to keep back the said debt under pretence of the above-mentioned recompense, against the will of the aforesaid merchants, beyond the term aforesaid. For all which articles aforesaid, firmly and wholly to be fulfilled, and inviolably to be observed, we bind ourselves and our church, and our successors, and all our goods and those of our church, movable and immovable, ecclesiastical and temporal, in possession and hereafter to be in possession, wherever they shall be found, to the said merchants and their heirs, until the full payment of all the aforesaid; which goods we hereby recognise that we possess from them by a precarious tenure. And we consent on all the aforesaid to be convened in all places, and before any tribunal, and do renounce, for all the aforesaid for ourselves and our successors, all the aid of law, both canon and civil, the privilege both of clerkship and of court, the letter of Saint Adrian, every custom and statute, all letters, indulgences, and privileges obtained, or to be hereafter obtained from the Apostolic See for the King of England and all the people of his kingdom, the constitution De duabus dietis, the benefit of full repayment, the benefit of appeal and of recusation, the inhibitory letters of the King of England, and all other exception, real and personal, which might be objected against this instrument or deed. All these things we promise faithfully shall be observed. In testimony of which matter we have thought it right to affix our seals to this present writing. Done on the fifth day of Elphege, in the year of grace MCCXXXV.”—(Matthew Paris, Giles’s translation, pp. 2-4.)

The rate of interest, it will be seen, was 60 per cent per annum.

In that same year—1235—the Bishop of London “perceiving that the Caursines openly multiplied their usury without shame and led a most filthy life, harassing the Religious with various injuries and amassing heaps of riches from the numbers who were forced to submit to their yoke,” arose and admonished them to desist from their practices and to do penance for their misdeeds. But what is a Bishop of London compared with the Pope of Rome? The Caursini laughed at the Bishop; they appealed to Rome; they procured an order that the Bishop, then old and ill, should repair to Rome with his complaints. The Bishop, therefore, said no more.

In the year 1251, proceedings were taken against some of them. They have the air of being a concession to popular prejudice, and also as a means of raising money for the King.

Again, to quote Matthew Paris:—

“The Transalpine usurers whom we call Caursins were so multiplied and became so rich that they built noble palaces for themselves at London, and determined to take up a permanent abode there, like the native-born citizens; and the prelates did not dare to murmur, as they, the Caursins, asserted that they were the agents of the Pope; nor did the citizens dare to express their discontent, as these men were protected by the favour of certain nobles, whose money, as was reported, they put out to amass interest after the fashion of the Roman Court. However, about this time, by the wish and instrumentality of the King, heavy accusations were made against them in the civil courts, and were brought to trial before a judge, and whilst some one in London sat as judge on the part of the King, who accused them, they were charged with being schismatics, heretics, and guilty of treason against the King, because, although they professed themselves Christians, they had most evidently polluted the kingdom of England with their base trade of usury; at which the most Christian King complained that he was deeply wounded in conscience, as he had sworn to preserve uninjured the holy institutes of the Church. As the Caursins could not deny the charge, some of them were seized and committed to prison, and others concealed themselves in out-of-the-way places. At this proceeding the Jews were rejoiced, as they had now participators in their state of slavery. At length, however, by the payment of a large sum of money, these Caursins, the rivals of the Jews, were allowed to be at peace for a time. One of them had told me, the writer of this work, of these matters, and declared on his oath, that if they had not built these costly houses at London, scarcely one of them would have remained in England.”

The methods of repayment by the King were various. The creditors received a bill upon the Exchequer or the Keeper of the Wardrobe; an assignment of a branch of the revenue—thus 27 Ed. I., the whole revenues of Ireland were assigned to the Frescobaldi of Florence in payment of a loan of £11,000; or the proceeds of a subsidy were given—thus 8 Ed. I., the proceeds of a fifteenth were assigned to the Italian merchants; or they took over the customs; or they received an addition to the principal large communal privileges; or they received offices of dignity and profit: they collected the customs; they took charge of the Mint; they were ambassadors. In the year 1294 there were twelve Florentines holding the title of ambassadors from throne states of Europe.

Among the companies which lent money to English kings in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were the Muzzi of Florence, the Company of Jacopo Brabazen of Sienna, the Bardi of Florence, the Ammanati of Pistoia, the Circuli Nerci and the Circuli Bianche of Florence, the Company of the Sons of Beccori of Lucca, the Palci of Florence, the Riccardi of Lucca, the Spini of Florence, the Company of Bestre of Lucca, the Scali of Florence and the Peruzzi of Florence, besides the Frescobaldi of Florence already mentioned. (See Appendix III.)

Enormous sums were advanced by these companies and repaid, during these two centuries. In 1254 Henry III. was called upon by the Pope to pay the sum of 130,541 marks sterling for expenses connected with the business of Sicily. Between the years 1295 and 1309 the Frescobaldi received of Edward I. and Edward II. the sum of £100,000. On the accession of Edward II. he had to pay, on account of his father’s debts, the sum of £118,000 and on his own account £28,000.

If, however, the Italians made immense profits out of the English kings retribution fell upon them, because the English King caused their ruin. Giovanni Villani tells the story:—

“At the period of the war between the kings of France and England, the companies of the Bardi and Peruzzi, of Florence, were the King of England’s merchants. All his revenues and wools came into their hands, and they furnished from them all his expenses. But the expenses so much exceeded the revenues that the King of England, when he returned home from the war, found himself indebted for principal, assignments, and rewards, to the Bardi more than 100,000 marks sterling, and to the Peruzzi more than 135,000 marks. Of these sums a considerable portion consisted in assignments which the King had made to them in times passed: but they were rash enough, whether from covet of gain or led on by the hope of recovering the entire debt, to give them up, and entrust all their own property and that of others in their keeping, to this one prince. And observe, that a large part of the money they had lent was not their own capital, but had been borrowed by them or received on trust from fellow-citizens and strangers. And great danger thence accrued both to them and to the city of Florence. For not being able to answer the calls of their creditors in England and Florence, and elsewhere, where they trafficked, they lost their credit on all sides, and became bankrupts; and especially the Peruzzi. Yet they avoided complete ruin by their possessions in the city and territory of Florence, and by the great power and rank which they held in the republic. This failure, and the expenses of the state in Lombardy, greatly reduced the wealth and condition of the merchants and traders of Florence, and of the whole community. For the Bardi and Peruzzi had held so large a share of the commerce of Christendom, that upon their fall every other merchant was suspected and distrusted. Our city of Florence, in consequence, received a shock, such as had not been experienced before for many years. But, to add to the reverses of these companies, the King of France caused them and other Florentines throughout his dominions to be pillaged of all their merchandise and property, both on account of the bankruptcy and because we had been obliged to borrow money of his subjects, to expend on our affairs in Lombardy and Lucca: and this caused the ruin of many other smaller companies of Florence, as we shall afterwards make mention.” (Archæologia, XXVII.-XXVIII. pp. 259-260.)

The power of the Caursini thus received a check from which it never recovered. Italian merchants, however, continued to reside in London, and to trade there. A curious story is told by Thomas of Walsingham, and repeated by Stow, of a Genoese merchant resident in the City. He is said to have proposed that if the King would erect a castle at Southampton, he would make that place the principal Port in the Kingdom, and the resort of foreign merchants from all parts. Some of the merchants of London, however, apprehensive of their own interests, caused the unfortunate Genoese to be murdered—for which crime one of them, John Kirby, was executed.

One more story, of a later period, illustrates the still lingering hatred of the Italians. I give the story in the words of Stow:—

“In the moneth of Maye, an Italians servaunte walkyng throughe Cheape of London, wyth a dagger hangyng at hys gyrdle, a Merchauntes servaunt that before tyme had bin in Italy and there blamed for wearing of the like weapon, chalenged the straunger, howe hee durst be so bolde to beare weapon, consydering he was out of hys Countrey, knowyng that in hys Countrey no straunger was suffered to wear the like. To the which question such answere was made by the straunger, that the Mercer toke from him hys dagger and brake it upon his heade, whereupon the stranger complayned to the Maior, who on the morrow sent for the yong man to the Guilde Hall: wherfore after his aunswere made unto the complaynt, by agreemente of a full Courte of Aldermen, he was sent to ward, and after the Court was finished, the Maior and Sherifes walking homewarde thoroughe Cheape, were there mette by suche a number of Mercers servauntes and other, that they mighte not passe, for ought they coulde speake or doe, till they hadde delivered the young manne that before was by them sente to prison. And the same daye in the afternoone sodainely was assembled a multitude of lewde and pore people of the City, which without heade or guide ranne unto certaine Italians houses, and especially to the Florentines, Lukesses and Venetians, and there toke and spoyled what they found, and dyd great hurt in sundry places, but moste in foure houses standing in Breadstreete warde, whereof three stoode in Saint Bartholmewes Parishe the little, and one in the Parish of Saint Benits Finke. The Maior, Aldermen and worshipful Commoners of the Citie, with all theyr diligence resisted them what they coulde, and sente diverse of them to Newegate: and fynallye, not without shedding of bloude and mayming of diverse Citizens, the rumour was appeased. The yong manne beginner of all thys businesse, tooke Sanctuarie at Westminster, and not long after the Duke of Buckingham with other noble menne were sente from the kyng into the Cytie, who there charged the Maior by Vertue of a Commission, that inquirie shoulde bee made of thys ryot, and so called an Dyer determyner at the Guilde Hall, where satte for Judges the Maior, as the kyngs Lieuetenaunte, the Duke of Buckingham on hys ryghte hande, the chiefe Justice on the lefte hande, and manye other men of name, where whyle they were enpanelyng theyr inquestes, the other Commons of the Citie manye of them secretly putte them in armour, and ment to have roong the common bell, so to have raysed the whole force of the Citie, and to so have delivered such persons as before for the robberie were committed to ward. But this matter was discretely handled by the counsel and labour of some discrete Commoners, which appeased their neighbours in such wise, that all this furie was quenched: but when worde was brought to the Duke of Buckingham, that the commonaltie were in harnesse, he with the other Lordes tooke leaue of the Maior and departed, and so ceased the inquirie for that day. Upon the morrow the Maior commaunded the common Counsell with the Wardens of fellowships to appeare at the Guild Hall, where by the Recorder in the King’s name and the Maior’s, was commaunded every Warden, that in the afternoone eyther of them should assemble his whole fellowship at their common Halles, and there to give straight commaundement, that every man see the king’s peace kept within the Citie. After which time the Citizens were brought to such quietnesse, that after that day, the enquirie was duly perused, and iij persons for the said ryot put in execution and hanged at Tyborne, whereof ij were Sanctuarie men of Saint Martins le graunde, the other a shipman, for robbing of Anthony Mowricine and other Lumbardes.” (Stow’s Chronicle.)