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The Ordinance of the Staple was an ordinance issued in the Great Council in October 1353. It aimed to regularise the status of
staple ports Staple may refer to: *Staple food, a foodstuff that forms the basic constituent of a diet *Staple (fastener), a small formed metal fastener **Surgical staple Arts, entertainment, and media *Staple (band), a Christian post-hardcore band ** ''Stapl ...
in England, Wales, and Ireland. In particular, it designated particular ports where specific goods could be exported or imported. These were called the 'staple ports'. It also established dedicated courts, known as the courts of staple, where disputes relating to commercial matters could be heard, in preference to the courts of common law. There were two immediately prior assemblies in August 1352 and July 1353 at which it is thought the matter of Staples was discussed. The scheme for home town staples was vetted by the more parliamentary assembly in September 1353. Royal officials had already been appointed on 10 July 1353 to run the scheme when the parliament of 1354 confirmed the new scheme by that the Act of Parliament. The previous act in 1326 had given the Staple towns legal definition, but the new piece of legislation broadened and widened their trading privileges. The Act facilitated mercantile credit to promote trade (which supported by a sympathetic King Edward, was also the constitutional duty of the Commons). It highlighted the weakness of 14th-century debt system, and the need to regulate trade to improve liquidity, after the economic crisis caused by the Black Death.
The staple In European historiography, the term "staple" refers to the entire medieval system of trade and its taxation; its French equivalent is ''étape'', and its German equivalent ''stapeln'', words deriving from Late Latin ' with the same meaning, derived ...
towns named in the statute were at
Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne (Received Pronunciation, RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the la ...
, York, Lincoln, Norwich, Westminster,
Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of the ...
,
Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only c ...
, Winchester,
Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal c ...
, and
Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, in England, as well as Dublin,
Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...
,
Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
, and
Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...
in Ireland. In Wales the designated staple town was
Carmarthen Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, d ...
. From 1368, the wool staple was transferred away from Canterbury to
Queenborough Queenborough is a town on the Isle of Sheppey in the Swale borough of Kent in South East England. Queenborough is south of Sheerness. It grew as a port near the Thames Estuary at the westward entrance to the Swale where it joins the River ...
, in Kent. In 1363 the merchants from the staples of York and Bristol founded a new staple at Calais. The merchants had established a near monopoly, and in 1353 were banned from exporting to England. In response in collaboration with the English Crown, the merchants guilds of these two well-established centres decided to organize a new market centre for wool in Bruges. They persistently petitioned parliament to establish "the freedom of trade" in cloth to Flanders, as a matter of principle. Conveniently the last Bruges monopoly company had been declared bankrupt in 1351. King Edward, whose queen emanated from Hainault, wished for both a diplomatic, commercial and military alliance against France. The Burgesses of the Commons welcomed the King's interest and approved the Staples transfer of trading rights to Bruges. The collapse of available labour supply increased awareness of trade regulation, and the need to control fraud, implied for England imposition of customs duties at given ports. In the interest of "the community realm" the Chief Justice designated it in the interest of the common law that free trade flourish.


See also

* Chapter 10, dealing with measurement fraud


References

;Bibliography * * * * *


External links


Ordinance and Statute of the Staple
* http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1825/50/pdfs/ukpga_18250050_en.pdf?timeline=true {{UK legislation Acts of the Parliament of England 1350s in England 1350s in law Hanseatic League Economy of medieval England Medieval economics Staple ports 1353 in Europe