Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1907-01-25
ME0iAEvAL LONDON.
Luxcfies of the British car'taI in An
Gent Days:


cient Days:
Not few interesting things come
out when we study the history of me.
diaeyal London. One of them is the
social status of the trader. The fash
ionable contempt for mis- business is o:
comparatively recent growth, not much
more than a century old. No precise
date can be given; but in the. earlier
part of the eighteenth century the feel
ing on the matter was not what 1t be-
came In the nineteenth.
For hundreds Of years before thet
the connection between the Country
and the city, the country gentlefolh
and the city trader, had been most in
innate. No more striking evidence OF
tlus can be given than the analysis
OF the origin of the 203 Lord Mayors
from Henry Fitz-Aylwin down to the
year $685. a period of 210 years. Oi
these 156 were country born. Wher
we consider what the mediaeva1 vii.
laGe was, how limited was the horizon
OF all but the lord of the manor OF
a knight here and there, it is not diff
cult to understand why many lads OF
good birth sought the opportunities Of
fered by apprenticeship in the city.
Camden is quoted TO show that the
nobility thought with shame of the
merchants career: He himself de-
clared nisreatura non derogat hobili:
tati. These same country lads sup
piled the city, as indeed they do now
With the necessary fresh blood anG
energy.
Another important point is the fac.
that London was always great as 6
distributing not as manufacturing
centre. And this fact no legislation
no, system of duties could alter. Fra
ternities of foreign merchants estabs
lished themselves In their fortified
houses. and kept their trade jealousy
to themselves. The Crown, so long
as it sot its tolls and duties, was con-
tent. Now and then, indeed, it en-.
deavcred to restrict their increasing
trade, but its ordinances were always
eyaded. For London wanted what they
alone could supply. 1t could supply it.
seif well enough with necessaries, as
Sir Walter Besant says, but neithei
London nor England has ever been
content with necessaries.
The medieval city of zoo years age
vas as fGll Of luxuries hs is the city
OF tcday-the best shopping place in
lcrthern Europe in the days of En-
ward III, IS it is in the days CT Ed
ward VII Entire fleets laden with
nothing but wine came to London. Once
CT twice there were periods when q
nan could get dead drunk for two
Fence, as the fascinating invitation OF
latter time put it; but the drink had
by that time been changed from wine
to gin. Mediaesal London had, indeed
the best Of everything, paying for il
az in wool. So Cafgrave has it: .Our
enemies laugh at us, they say, Take
the ship off your gold noble and i'm
press sheep instead This was
the noble of Edward III.) Napoleon
repeated the taunt, but the laugh was
not in the end with the foreigner. AND
low, it may be asked, did these good
things so backward and forward? Not
always securely. We could not al
ways command the Channel, though
we still claimed the sovereignty OF the
seas. In tais respect things reached
tEelr worst, We are told, in the four
tsenth century. Foreign merchants
settled in London and traded. They
came IRON Venice, Rouen, Genoa, Flor
epce, Lombardy, Antwerp and Dantzig
AND so the period was halycon time
Tor pirates. for lords of manors who
had foTeshores, for fishermen and
Tor wreckers. The Spectator.