If we may believe Fitz-Stephen, London, in the middle of the twelfth century, possessed a considerable portion of trade:  among the imports, he mentions gold, spices, and frankincense from Arabia; precious stones from Egypt; purple drapery from India, palm oil from Bagdad:  but it is certain that all these articles were obtained directly from Italian merchants.  The furs of Norway and Russia were brought by German merchants, who, according to William of Malmsbury, were the principal foreign merchants who traded to England.  The same author mentions Exeter, as a city much resorted to by foreign merchants; and that vessels from Norway, Iceland, and other countries, frequented the port of Bristol.  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.

Though it appears by official documents in the reign of king John, that the south coast of England, and the east coast only, as far as Norfolk, were esteemed the principal part of the country; yet, very shortly after the date of these documents, Newcastle certainly had some foreign trade, particularly with the northern nations of Europe for furs.  In this reign are the first records of English letters of credit.

Some idea may be formed of the importation of wine at the beginning of the fourteenth century, by the following facts:  in the year ending 20th Nov. 1299, the number of vessels that arrived in London and the other ports, (with the exception of the Cinque ports,) bringing cargoes of wine amounting to more than nineteen tuns, was seventy-three; and the number in the next year was seventy-one.  It is probable, however, that we may double these numbers, since the