Catalogue description FOREIGN MERCHANTS.

Other documents relating to the dealings of the Crown with the Frescobaldi through the administration of Acquitaine and Ponthieu are in E 101 under the heading ‘France’; and some lists of the Gascons, which might more appropriately be placed under that heading, are included under the section of ‘Foreign Merchants’. The documents in E 101 concern not only loans to the Crown, for which the Exchequer demanded periodic account, but also loans made to various of the King’s subjects.

Documents in E 101 are only one of several sources of evidence for the transactions which, in the case of the Crown, were often made through the Wardrobe to finance the costs of war; additional and related documents are in C 47, Bundle 13. Other sources include the Memoranda Rolls of the King’s Remembrancer (E 159); the Pipe Rolls (E 372); the Ancient Correspondence (SC 1) and the various series of Chancery enrolments. In the fifteenth century the records in E 101 evidence the difficult and changing relations between the Crown, its subjects, and the merchant community, including the Hanse. Most items are lists and returns of foreign merchants, particularly in London: partly as in support of a system of control, and differing legal status, but also as a warranty for the levy or allowance of particular rates of customs for identifiable merchant groups. The return of certificates by which all members of the Hanse were to be authenticated by sealed from their home towns, was one of the conditions attached to Henry IV to his confirmation of the Hanse privileges in October 1399. During negotiations early in the reign of Edward IV the king’s lawyers ruled that only members of the London Guildhall were entitled to the franchises, so that everyone claiming immunity from tonnage and poundage as a merchant of the House now had to be certified by the Guildhall officials as a member of that organisation. The system is known to have continued into the reign of Henry VIII, and many such certificates were sent into the Exchequer by customers as vouchers of their accounts, in claim for allowances to be made on those accounts.

Such vouchers survive in some quantity in the series of customs’ accounts, E 122, and it is probable that the Hanse certificates now in E 101 are strays from that process. Other lists of alien merchants concern the hosting system which governed their residence. In the sixteenth century some of the documents again relate to loads raised by Crown from merchants and bankers overseas, both from Italian firms and from the Fuggers, the latter transacted largely in the Antwerp market. These are documented more fully in the various bonds for repayment now among the record of the Treasury of the Receipt (E 34); in documents subsidiary to accounts of the Chamber (E 101, Wardrobe and Household) and in files of obligations and debts (E 101, E 114). Other bonds, given by various merchants, mostly Italian, to the Crown, are probably for payment of customs dues directly into the Chamber. Such bonds are a good source for seals, signatures, and merchants marks. Some bonds relate to transactions with the king’s wardrobe. Other bonds and accounts appear to be assets assigned to the Crown in payment for third party debts.

Documents later in date than the mid sixteenth century are mostly exhibits and other papers in causes in both revenue and equity heard in the Exchequer. It is likely that some will relate to other documents in the series of Depositions by Commission, E 134, and to others comprising a record of actions in the Exchequer – see Public Record Office, Records Information No 96: Equity proceedings in the Court of the Exchequer and the introductory notes to a number of individual series. The group includes a substantial accumulation of depositions, including notarialised copies and translations, and other papers concerning the shipment of bullion Spain and Flanders (E 101/129/14-20; E 101/601/20, 21).

The various documents in E 101/601 were, for the most part, formerly classed as Exchequer, Treasury of Receipt, Diplomatic documents (E 30) and were transferred here c 1910. Several carry annotations in hands of the seventeenth and eighteenth century which suggest an origin in the Treasury of the Receipt. Their contact in some instances suggests an earlier Treasury origin, either by inheritance from the Wardrobe, or as vouchers documenting loans to the Crown by foreign merchants and bankers. In most instances the former E 30 references are still visible on the documents or their wrappers. The nature and origin of some of these documents means that they include examples of notarial signs and signatures, mostly Italian.