So Southwark was given a royal
charter which put it under the jurisdiction of London for peace
and order matters and allowed London to appoint its tax collector.
London forbade games being played because they had replaced
practice in archery, which was necessary for defense.
A royal inquiry into the state of the currency indicated much
falsification and coin-clipping by the Jews and others. About 280
Jews and many Englishmen were found guilty and hanged. The rest of
the Jews, about 16,000, were expelled in 1290. This was popular
with the public because of the abuses of usury. There had been
outbreaks of violence directed at the Jews since about 1140. The
king used Italian bankers instead because he thought them more
equitable in their dealings. The lepers were driven out of London
in 1276. Exports and imports were no longer a tiny margin in an
economy just above the subsistence level. Exports were primarily
raw wool and cloth, but also grain, butter, eggs, herring, hides,
leather goods such as bottles and boots, embroideries, metalware,
horseshoes, daggers, tin, coal, and lead. Imported were wine,
silk, timber, furs, rubies, emeralds, fruits, raisins, currents,
pepper, ginger, cloves, rice, cordovan leather, pitch, hemp,
spars, fine iron, short rods of steel, bow-staves of yew, tar,
oil, salt, cotton (for candle-wicks), and alum (makes dyes hold).
Ships which transported them had one or two masts upon which sails
could be furled, the recently invented rudder, and a carrying
capacity of up to 200 tuns [about one ton].
Pages:
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368