The merchant adventurers of England: Their origins and the Mercers' company of London

Historical Research

Volumn 75, Issue 187, 2002, Pages 25-46

  Sutton, Anne F ^a  

^a Bury St Edmunds   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 2942617353     PISSN: 09503471     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-2281.00139     Document Type: Article

References (167)

1. For the 1560s text see Schanz (below), ii. 134
2. J. Wheeler, A Treatise of Commerce. Reproduced from the London Edition of 1601 (Facsimile Text Soc., 5th ser., vol. 2, New York, 1931)
3. A. Anderson, An Historical and Chronological Deduction of the Origin of Commerce from the Earliest Accounts. Containing an History of the Great Commercial Interests of the British Empire … (4 vols., 1787-9), i, esp. pp. 253, 550
4. G. von Schanz, Englische Handelspolitik gegen Ende des Mittelalters (2 vols., Leipzig, 1881)
5. J. Watney, Some Account of The Hospital of St. Thomas of Acon, in the Cheap London (1892)
6. G. Cawston, The Early Chartered Companies, A.D. 1296-1858 (1896)
7. R. Ehrenberg, Hamburg und England in Zeitalter de Königin Elisabeth (Jena, 1896)
8. W. E. Lingelbach, The Merchant Adventurers of England: their Laws and Ordinances (Philadelphia, Pa., 1902)
9. idem, 'The internal organisation of the Merchant Adventurers of England', Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., new ser., xvi (1902), 19-67
10. G. Unvvin, 'The Merchant Adventurers' Company in the reign of Elizabeth' [1913], in Studies in Economic History: the Collected Papers of George Unwin, ed. R. H. Tawney (1927), pp. 13 3-220, esp. pp. 138-44, 169-70
11. The York Mercers and Merchant Adventurers 1356-1917, ed. M. Sellers (Surtees Soc., cxxix, 1917)
12. E. M. Carus-Wilson, The origins and early development of the Merchant Adventurers' organisation in London as shown in their own medieval records', Econ. Hist. Rev., 1st ser, iv (1933), 147-76
13. repr. in eadem, Medieval Merchant Venturers: Collected Studies (1954), pp. 143-82 (from which citations are taken here), with additions in the 'Introduction', pp. xi-xxvi
14. J. de Sturler, Les relations politiques et les échanges commerçiaux entre le duché de Brabant et l'Angleterre au moyen âge (Paris, 1936)
15. E. Lipson, The Economic History of England (2 vols., 7th edn., 1937), i. 550-94
16. O. de Smedt, De Engehe Natie te Antwerpen in de 16e Eeuw (2 vols., Antwerp, 1950-4)
17. P. Ramsey, 'The Merchant Adventurers in the first half of the 16th century' (unpublished University of London Ph.D, thesis, 1958)
18. G. D, Ramsay, 'The Antwerp mart', in idem, English Overseas Trade during the Centuries of Emergence: Studies in Some Modern Origins of the EnglishSpeaking World (1957)
19. J. Imray, 'The Merchant Adventurers and their records', Jour. Soc. Archivists, ii (1964), 457-67
20. G. D. Ramsay, The City of London in International Politics at the Accession of Elizabeth Tudor (Manchester, 1975)
21. idem, 'Victorian historiography and the guilds of London: the report of the Royal Commission on the Livery Companies of London, 1884', London Jour., x (1984), 155-66
22. idem, The Queen's Merchants and the Revolt of the Netherlands (Manchester, 1986)
23. D. R Bisson, The Merchant Adventurers of England: the Company and the Crown, 1474-1564 (London and Toronto, 1993)
24. S. Jenks, England, die Hanse und Preussen: Handel und Diplomatie 1377-1474 (3 vols., Cologne, 1992), ii, esp. pp. 236-45
25. idem, 'England und die kontinentalen Messen in 15. Jahrhundert und die Entstehung der Merchant Adventurers', in Europäische Messen und Märktesysteme in Mittelalter und Neuzeit, ed. P. Johanek and H. Stoob (Cologne, 1996), pp. 57-86, esp. pp. 67-86. The author is most grateful for the interest of the seminar of Caroline Barron and Vanessa Harding at the Institute of Historical Research in 1999 and for the helpful comments of Richard Britnell
26. Schanz, i. 340
27. Watney, p. 11
28. Cawston, p. 20
29. Carus-Wilson, 'Origins', passim
30. John Isham, Mercer and Merchant Adventurer: Two Account Book of a London Merchant in the Reign of Elizabeth I, ed. G. D. Ramsay (Northamptonshire Record Soc, xxi, 1962), p. lix
31. and idem, City, p. 42
32. Ramsey, pp. 112-6
33. Cawston, pp. 20-1
34. Lingelbach, Ordinances, pp. xxi-xxiii, 199 n. 1
35. Carus-Wilson, 'Origins', pp. 149-50, 176, 182
36. Ramsey, pp. 112-16
37. Wheeler, pp. 10-11
38. Anderson, i. 253, 550
39. Schanz, i. 14, 339-41 (his first document is 1408), ii. 159
40. Ramsay, City, pp. 42, 258
41. and idem, 'Victorian historiography', p. 159
42. Lipson, i. 572
43. Ramsay, 'Victorian historiography', p. 159
44. and idem, City, pp. 40, 42, 258
45. an edition with introduction is currently being prepared by the present author and Livia Visser-Fuchs. M.C., Wardens' Accounts 1348, 1390-1464 (hereafter W.A.). The Acts of Court of the Mercers' Company, 1453-1527, ed. L. Lyell and F. Watney (hereafter A.C.) (Cambridge, 1936)
46. From the Old French, The Middle English Dictionary, under 'aventure': fortune (1), risk (3), enterprise (4). 'Adventorer' is only noted as a gambler (1474)
47. See also Oxford English Dictionary, The statute of 1497, 12 Henry VII ch. 6 makes it clear that 'merchant adventurer' is a general term for all overseas traders, with Spain, Venice, Danzig or the Low Countries (see Lingelbach, Ordinances, p. 204)
48. Schanz, i. 343
49. Lingelbach, Ordinances, p. xxviii
50. Carus-Wilson, 'Origins', pp. 143-4, 149-50
51. and eadem, 'Introduction' to Medieval Merchant Venturers, pp. xi-xvii
52. Lipson, i. 570
53. Ramsay, 'Antwerp Mart', p. 11
54. M. Nerlich, 'Quand l'histoire des idées s'aventure: annotations à l'histoire du mot adventuraaventure', Travaux de linguistique et de philologie, xxxiii-xxxiv (1995-6), 347-62, esp. pp. 351, 356. The author is indebted to Lisa Jefferson for this reference
55. M.C., W.A., fos. 111v (1432-3), 141V (1442-3). A.C., p. 277
56. M.C., Chalgrave Estate, 4/F1/1857. The addition of citizens of London was to exclude the outport adventurers. Cf 1510 exclusion (A.C., p. 353)
57. Corporation of London Records Office (hereafter C.L.R.O.), Jour. 9, fo. 102V
58. T. H. Lloyd, England and the German Hanse 1157-1611 (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 1 (quotation), 13-21
59. E. Perroy, 'Le commerce anglo-flamand au xiiie siècle: la Hanse flamande de Londres', Rev. Historique, cclii (1974), 3-18, passim
60. R. Doehaerd, 'A propos du mot "hanse"', Rev. du Nord, xxxiii (1951), 18-28, at p. 26
61. R.-H. Bautier, 'Les foires de Champagne: recherches sur une évolution historique', in La Foire (Recueil de la Société Jean Bodin, v, Brussels, 1953), pp. 126-7, 130-3
62. G. Fagniez, Documents relatifs à l'histoire de l'industrie et du commerce en France (2 vols., Paris, 1898-1900), i. 155-7, doc. 103
63. Compare esp. the early grants to the Cologners and their guild in England (J. Huffmann, Family, Commerce and Religion in London and Cologne (Cambridge, 1988), chs. 1 and 2. A later e.g. of a trading fraternity is that of St. Nicholas at Attendorn whose members traded to England in 1328 (Lloyd, p. 36)
64. Compare G. F. Ward, 'The early history of the Merchants Staplers', Eng. Hist. Rev., xxxiii (1918), 314-16
65. See Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls of the City of London 1323-64 (hereafter C.P.M.R.), ed. A, H. Thomas (Cambridge, 1936), pp. 56-9, for a clash involving Londoners, men of York and mayors of the early staples, Richard de Betoyne and John de Charlton (mercer)
66. Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi Benedicti Abhatis, ed. W. Stubbs (2 vols., 1867), i. xlivff, ii. 116-17
67. copied Chronica Magistri Rogeri de Houeden, ed. idem (4 vols., 1868-71), ii. 42
68. Johannes Herolt, Miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary, trans. C. C. Swinton Bland (1928), pp. xx, 64-7
69. A. F. Sutton, 'Merchants, music and social harmony: the London Puy and its French and London contexts, c.1300', London Jour., xvii (1992), 1-17
70. eadem, 'The Tumbling Bear and its patrons: a venue for the London Puy and Mercery', in London and Europe in the Later Middle Ages, ed. J. Boffey and P. King (1996), pp. 84-110. C.P.M.R., pp. 56-9
71. Lipson, i. 551-6, 565-8. N. J. M. Kerling, Commercial Relations of Holland and Zeeland with England from the late 13th Century to the Close of the Middle Ages (Leiden, 1954), pp. 137-8
72. D. Nicholas, Medieval Flanders (1992), pp. 164-6
73. Sutton, 'Tumbling Bear', pp. 91-3
74. J. Maréchal, 'De kapel van de Engelsen te Brugge, 1344-1563', Archives et bihliothèques de Belgique, xxxiv (1963), 48-59, esp. pp. 51-2
75. For Melchebourne see Kerling, pp. 135-6
76. By 1330 a fraternity had been established for the English at Rome under the patronage of St. Thomas, and an English house was established in the 13605 (M. Harvey, The English in Rome 1362-1420: Portrait of an Expatriate Community (Cambridge, 1999), passim
77. John de Hynkeley, a notary from Lincolnshire, is recorded as being at Rome in 1379 and 1384 (ibid., p. 33), but is perhaps too old to be the clerk of the staple
78. Kerling, p. 153
79. citing Bronnen tot de geschiedenis van den handel met Engeland, Schotland en Ierland, ed. H. J. Smit (4 vols., The Hague, 1928-50), ii. no. 1325
80. It is worth noting that it was the grant of 26 Feb. 1359 from the count which the 15th-century Adventurers referred to as their earliest Flemish privilege (M.C., B.P., fos. 45-8)
81. R Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation (12 vols., Glasgow, 1903-5), ii. 154. Later there may have been a chapel at Bergen op Zoom in the Adventurers' own house, and it seems possible there was one at Antwerp
82. Sellers, pp. li, 97
83. D. Keene and V. Harding, Historical Gazetteer of London before the Great Fire, i: Cheapside (Cambridge, 1987), 105/18
84. British Library, Sloane MS. 2103 fos. 1-5v (new foliation), printed in Schanz, ii. 574-82 (recte N.S. 1548)
85. The 1296 grant is in the list (item 17) but incorrectly dated as 1486 by the scribe. It is hoped to include details of other 'books' of the Adventurers in the forthcoming edition of M.C., B.P. See also Imray, pp. 457-67
86. A.C., p. 62
87. Compare C.P.M.R., pp. 57-8
88. See nn. 17, 32 and 40
89. M.C., W.A., passim to 1464 for St. John's Day as the end of the accounting year. The references to St. Thomas's Day are all late, e.g. the 1492 wardens' banquet/election was held just after St. Thomas's day (A.C., p. 228), while in 1502 it was held at 'St. Thomas tide' (ibid., p. 324)
90. See n. 3 above, Unwin, 'Merchant Adventurers' Company', p. 169
91. Perroy, p. 16. E. E. Rich, A Short History of the Company of the Merchants of the Staple of England (n.p., n.d.), pp. 1, 3
92. and The Ordinance Book of the Merchants of the Staple, ed. idem (Cambridge, 1937), p. 3, referring to the Staplers' own register of royal grants; and see pp. 5-6 for Edward III's grant of 1359 which allowed the wool merchants their own organization, first at Bruges and in 1363 at Calais
93. De Sturler, p. 204
94. G. A. Williams, Medieval London: from Commune to Capital (1963), pp. 112-13
95. M.C., B.P., which starts with the 1296 text. See also Brit. Libr., Cotton MS. Tiberius D viii fos. 22-23V and 24-31 for accurate notes by a 16th-century clerk of the Adventurers on the earliest privileges. G. Unwin, 'A short notice', Eng. Hist. Rev., xxvii (1912), 810-11
96. and idem, 'Merchant Adventurers' Company', p. 138. Carus-Wilson, in her 'Introduction', also went back to 1296
97. M.C., B.P., fos. 1-13, 1296 (the best surviving copy) and 1315
98. H. Obreen, 'Une charte brabançonne inédite de 1296 en faveur des marchands anglais', Bull. de la Commission royale d'Histoire de Belgique, lxxx (1911), 528-57. De Sturler, pp. 212-19, 180-208, 270-6
99. In the same period 14 mercers exported 4301/2 short cloths sine grano and 814 other cloths. The author is most grateful to Vanessa Harding for the loan of her notes from Public Record Office, E 122/71/8
100. See also A. Sutton, 'Some aspects of the linen trade C.11308 to 1500, and the part played by the Mercers of London', Textile Hist., xxx (1999), 115-75, at pp. 166-7
101. M. Boone, 'Les toiles de lin des Pays-Bas Bourguignons sur le marché anglais (fin XlVe-XVIe siècles)', Publication du Centre Européen d'Études Bourguignonnes (XlVe-XVIe siècles), xxxv (1995), 72-3
102. Carus-Wilson, 'Introduction', p. xvii
103. A few mercers exported wool to Middelburg in the 1370s (Calendar of Fine Rolls 1360-77, pp. 147-51, 163-7)
104. See also F. Miller, 'The Middelburg staple, 1383-8', Cambridge Hist. Jour., ii (1926-8), 63-4
105. Calendar of Patent Rolls 1381-5, p. 364
106. Kerling, pp. 138-43
107. This is also the first year overseas expenses are recorded in M.C., W.A., fo. 79
108. Kerling, p. 150: he was trading in Middelburg in 1412. Warren was governor for at least 1421-30 or 1433, and must have exercised a considerable influence on the development of the merceradventurers (see M.C, WA, fo. 114V)
109. Smit, ii. nos. 983, 985
110. Lloyd, pp. 48-9, 53, 67-73, 16-24
111. The fishmongers, William Brampton, Walter Sibille and William Askliam, with John Pickering, clerk, and John Bevys, the first governor in Prussia
112. Compare Kerling, pp. 154-5
113. M.C., W.A., fo. 167 (spelling has been modernized)
114. Nominated alderman three times, 1457-60 (A. B. Beaven, The Aldermen of The City of London (2 vols, 1908-13), i. 90, 109, 154)
115. exempt from office (C.P.R. 1452-61, p. 483). Calendar of Letter Books … of the City of London, ed. R. R. Sharpe (11 vols., 1899-1912), Letter Book K, pp. 218, 271
116. For the cost of the charter, see M.C., W.A., fo. 203
117. For these events and Overey's career see A. F. Sutton, 'Caxton was a mercer', in England in the 15th Century, ed. N. Rogers (Harlaxton Medieval Studies, iv, Stamford, 1994), pp. 127-32
118. Antwerpen Stad Archief, Charters, CH-C327: arms not visible on original. Used by De Smedt as a frontispiece
119. Eg., A.C., pp. 204-5 (1490)
120. M.C., B.P., fos. 83-92V
121. Compare the 1421 election above. Sellers, pp. xxxvi-xxxvii, 75-80
122. Jenks, England, die Hanse und Prcussen, i. 235, explains the attack by Pickering on the northerners by the failure of London's exports of English cloth, compared to those of the non-Londoners. For 1497, see 12 Henry VII ch. 6
123. M.C., W.A., fo. 79
124. M.-R. Thielemans, Bourgogne et Angleterre: relations politiques et économiques entre les Pays-Bas Bourguignons et l'Angleterre 1435-67 (Brussels, 1966), pp. 157-63
125. A.C., p. 277
126. Compare Jenks, England, die Hanse und Preussen, i. 237
127. A.C., pp. 279-80 (author's italics)
128. Pace Cams-Wilson, 'Origins', p. 155
129. and Jenks, England, die Hanse und Preussen, i. 238-9
130. Thielemans, pp. 413-15
131. and for other diplomatic appointments of mercer-adventurers, see ibid., pp. 139 nn. 163 and 167, 140 n. 171, 143-4
132. See also n. 41 above, and C. L. Scofield, Life and Reign of Edward IV (2 vols., 1923), i. 352-8
133. A.C., pp. 165-6
134. Cams-Wilson, 'Origins', p. 156. Jenks, England, die Hanse und Preussen, i. 238-9, convincingly reconstructs the recent events which might have been discussed
135. A.C., pp. 118-40, passim; quotations, pp. 118, 120 (spelling has been modernized)
136. C.P.R. 1476-85, pp. 243-4, 261-2 for pardons to merchants of other places, Feb. 1482
137. The Overseas Trade of London: Exchequer Customs Accounts 1480-1, ed. H. S. Cobb (London Record Soc., xxvii, 1990), pp. xxx-xxxii, proceedings were mostly against mercers
138. A.C., pp. 149-54 (author's italics), and see ibid., p. 156 for surviving relevant courts of 15, 16 May (which follows that of the 26 May), 3 and 9 June
139. Jenks, England, die Harne und Preussen, i. 244-5
140. E.g.s of underwriting by Mercers: 1427-8 the costs of letters to the duke of Burgundy and the Staple to be repaid by a levy on goods due to arrive from overseas, and to be taken by the appointers in London (M.C., W.A., fos. 97V, 98V)
141. see above n. 45 for the privy seal of 1462; 1464, A.C., pp. 279-80
142. An earlier impost of 1451-2 on the 'fellowship' (in London or abroad is not stated) was levied to finance a suit to the duke of Suffolk over the customs (M.C., W.A., fo. 173v)
143. For conduits, see M.C., W.A., passim, and, e.g., A.C., pp. 207-12 (1490)
144. For a definition of 'conduit' see above p. 35
145. A.C., pp. 156-7
146. A.C., pp. 165-6 (author's italics)
147. There was a long history of co-operation between the Guildhall and the adventurers at Mercers' Hall over letters to the Low Countries, e.g. 1421-2
148. John Carpenter was paid for their letters to Ghent, Ypres and Bruges (M.C., W.A., fo. 81)
149. 1450-1, letter to Calais (fo. 170V)
150. 1457-8, letter to earl of Warwick (fo. 191)
151. 1462-3, letter to Middelburg (fo. 205v)
152. 1464, letter to the king (see n. 56 above)
153. C.L.R.O., Jour. 9, fos. 101, 102v. Carus-Wilson, 'Origins', pp. 158-60, saw this as the first official recognition of the adventurers but compare her 'Introduction', pp. xxvi-xxvii
154. In 1517-18 Governor Hewster, probably deliberately, questioned the mayor's authority as regards 'his' company (A.C., pp. 474-8
155. C.L.R.O., Repertory 3, fos. 210, 216V-20, 218v-9
156. and ibid., Jour. 11, fos. 345V-6 (there is extensive misbinding)). De Smedt, ii. 49 and n. 23
157. Pace Carus-Wilson "Origins', pp. 158-9
158. Chronicles of London, ed. C. L. Kingsford (Oxford, 1905), p. 268
159. The Great Chronicle of London, ed. A. H. Thomas and I. D. Thornley (1938), p. 240
160. A.C., pp. 294-6, 300-2, 379, 457. Imray, pp. 459-60
161. They were back there in the 1570s (M.C., Cheke's Survey, fo. 6v)
162. 12 Henry VII ch. 6
163. and compare fees in the 1478 dispute above. 1505 letters: A.C., pp. 476-7, and Schanz, ii. no. 121. 1506 letters: ibid., no. 122
164. For the difficulties between the Adventurers and Staplers, see ibid., nos. 119, 120. Pace sources cited in nn. 4 and 5 above. See also n. 67 above
165. E.g., Ramsey, pp. 164-6
166. For the regular use of 'nation': 1344, fraternity deed (Marechal, p. 52); 1421-2, 11. 40 above; 1490, A.C., pp. 203-4
167. For 1462 and 1464 see nn. 45 and 56 above. For 1485, A.C., pp. 164-5