The trade of England (says Hume) was formerly entirely in thehands of foreigners, but especially of the 'Easterlings'(5*) whomHenry III constituted a corporation, to whom he granted privileges,and whom he freed from restrictions and import duties to whichother foreign merchants were liable.The English at that time wereso inexperienced in commerce that from the time of Edward II theHansards, under the title of 'Merchants of the Steelyard',monopolised the entire foreign trade of the kingdom.And as theyconducted it exclusively in their own ships, the shipping interestof England was in a very pitiable condition.(6*)Some German merchants, viz.those of Cologne, after they hadfor a long time maintained commercial intercourse with England, atlength established in London, in the year 1250, at the invitationof the King, the factory which became so celebrated under the nameof 'The Steelyard' an institution which at first was so influentialin promoting culture and industry in England, but afterwardsexcited so much national jealousy, and which for 375 years, untilits ultimate dissolution, was the cause of such warm andlong-continued conflicts.
England formerly stood in similar relations with the HanseaticLeague to those in which Poland afterwards stood with the Dutch,and Germany with the English; she supplied them with wool, tin,hides, butter, and other mineral and agricultural products, andreceived manufactured articles in exchange.The Hansards conveyedthe raw products which they obtained from England and the northernstates to their establishment at Bruges (founded in 1252), andexchanged them there for Belgian cloths and other manufactures, andfor Oriental products and manufactures which came from Italy, whichlatter they carried back to all the countries bordering on thenorthern seas.
A third factory of theirs, at Novgorod in Russia (establishedin 1272), supplied them with furs, flax, hemp, and other rawproducts in exchange for manufactures.A fourth factory, at Bergenin Norway (also founded in 1272), was occupied principally withfisheries and trade in train oil and fish products.(7*)The experience of all nations in all times teaches us thatnations, so long as they remain in a state of barbarism, deriveenormous benefit from free and unrestricted trade, by which theycan dispose of the products of the chase and those of theirpastures, forests, and agriculture -- in short, raw products ofevery kind; obtaining in exchange better clothing materials,machines, and utensils, as well as the precious metals -- the greatmedium of exchange and hence that at first they regard free tradewith approval.But experience also shows that those very nations,the farther advances that they make for themselves in culture andin industry, regard such a system of trade with a less favourableeye, and that at last they come to regard it as injurious and as ahindrance to their further progress.Such was the case with thetrade between England and the Hansards.A century had scarcelyelapsed from the foundation of the factory of the 'Steelyard' whenEdward III conceived the opinion that a nation might do somethingmore useful and beneficial than to export raw wool and importwoollen cloth.He therefore endeavoured to attract Flemish weaversinto England by granting them all kinds of privileges; and as soonas a considerable number of them had got to work, he issued aprohibition against wearing any articles made of foreign cloth.(8*)The wise measures of this king were seconded in the mostmarvellous manner by the foolish policy pursued by the rulers ofother countries -- a coincidence which has not unfrequently to benoted in commercial history.If the earlier rulers of Flanders andBrabant did everything in their power to raise their nativeindustry to a flourishing condition, the later ones did everythingthat was calculated to make the commercial and manufacturingclasses discontented and to incite them to emigration.(9*)In the year 1413 the English woollen industry had already madesuch progress that Hume could write respecting that period, 'Greatjealousy prevailed at this time against foreign merchants, and anumber of restrictions were imposed on their trade, as, forinstance, that they were required to lay out in the purchase ofgoods produced in England the whole value which they realized fromarticles which they imported into it.(10*)Under Edward IV this jealousy of foreign traders rose to sucha pitch that the importation of foreign cloth, and of many otherarticles, was absolutely prohibited.(11*)Notwithstanding that the king was afterwards compelled by theHansards to remove this prohibition, and to reinstate them in theirancient privileges, the English woollen manufacture appears to havebeen greatly promoted by it, as is noted by Hume in treating of thereign of Henry VII, who came to the throne half a century laterthan Edward IV.