That there were, however,
native merchants of considerable wealth and importance, cannot be doubted.
In the year 1318, the king called a council of English merchants on staple
business: they formed a board of themselves; and one was appointed to
preside, under the title of mayor of the merchants, or mayor of the staple.
About the middle of this century, Dover, London, Yarmouth, Boston, and
Hull, were appointed places for exchanging foreign money; and the entire
management was given to William de la Pole. His name deserves particular
notice, as one of the richest and most enlightened of the early merchants
of England. His son, Michael, was also a merchant, and was created earl of
Suffolk by Richard II. "His posterity flourished as earls, marquises, and
dukes of Suffolk, till a royal marriage, and a promise of the succession to
the crown, brought the family to ruin."
When Edward III. went to the siege of Calais, the different ports of
England furnished him with ships. From the list of these it appears, that
the whole number supplied was 700, manned by 14,151 seamen, averaging under
twenty men for each vessel. Gosford is the only port whose vessels average
thirty-one men. Yarmouth sent forty-three vessels; Fowey, forty-seven;
Dartmouth, thirty-one; Bristol, twenty-four; Plymouth, twenty-six; London,
twenty-five; Margate, fifteen; Sandwich, twenty-two; Southampton,
twenty-one; Winchelsea, twenty-one; Newcastle, sixteen; Hull, seventeen.
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