Chester at this period also
possessed much trade, particularly with Iceland, Aquitaine, Spain, and
Germany. Henry I. made a navigable canal from the Trent to the Witham at
Lincoln, which rendered this place one of the most flourishing seats of
home and foreign trade in England. The Icelandic Chronicles inform us that
Grimsby was a port much resorted by the merchants of Norway, Scotland,
Orkney, and the Western Islands.
Previous to the reign of Henry II., the sovereigns and lords of manors in
England claimed, as their right, the property of all wrecked vessels; but
this monarch passed a law, enacting, that if any one human creature, or
even a beast, were found alive in the ship, or belonging to her, the
property should be kept for the owners, provided they claimed it in three
months. This law, as politic as it was humane and just, must have
encouraged foreign trade. In this reign the chief exports seem to have been
lead, tin, and wool, and small quantities of honey, wax, cheese, and
salmon. The chief imports were wine from the king's French dominions, woad
for dying, spiceries, jewels, silks, furs, &c.
The laws of Oleron, an island near the coast of France belonging to
England, are generally supposed to have been passed by Richard I.; both
these, however, and their exact date, are uncertain: they were copied from
the Rhodian law, or rather from the maritime laws of Barcelona.
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