1338-12-20, Byfleet

To the collectors of customs in the port of Boston. Order to permit the merchants of the societies of the Bardi and Peruzzi to lade in that port, and take to parts beyond the sea, without paying custom and subsidy, 69 sacks of wool which still remain to be laded out of 600 sacks which the king granted they should take from that port, as the king granted that the Bardi should take 5,000 sacks, and the Peruzzi, 2,000 sacks out of the realm, to do their pleasure therewith, and afterwards for certain causes shown before the chancellor and treasurer and others of the council in England, concerning the purveyance and collection of the king's wool in divers parts of the realm, and the sending of the same to the king to parts beyond the sea, the king granted that the said merchants should then send 800 and 200 sacks of wool respectively of the 7,000 sacks to the said parts, and that the purveyance and sending of the residue should cease until further order, and the king ordered the collectors of customs in the port of London to permit those merchants to lade the said 1,000 sacks in that port, and take them to the said parts without paying the custom and subsidy thereon; and the king has now granted that those merchants shall lade 600 sacks of the remainder of the 7,000 sacks in the port of Boston, and take them as aforesaid, and because the merchants have found security that they will cause the 600 sacks to be taken to Andewerp, where the staple is ordained, and not elsewhere, the king ordered the collectors of customs in the port of Boston to take the oath of the mariners who take that wool, that they will not take it except to Brabant, and to permit the said merchants to lade the 600 sacks in that port, and take them to parts beyond the sea without paying the custom and subsidy thereon, notwithstanding the proclamation to the contrary, and that the merchants should be charged with the custom and subsidy due thereon, in part payment of the sums by them for the king, as is fully contained in the said order, and now merchants have informed the king that in the time of the late collectors there they only laded 531 sacks, and the present collectors prevent from lading the remaining 69 sacks, wherefor they have besought the king to provide a remedy. By the keeper and C,