[6] Macpherson, in his Annals of Commerce, agrees with Bloomfield the historian of Norfolk, that a colony of Flemish weavers settled so early as 1327, at Worsted, a village in that county, and bestowed upon it the name it bears. On the introduction of the Flemish weavers, Kendal became the metropolis of this branch of industry, and was soon equalled in the extent of its manufactories by many other towns, as Norwich, Sudbury, Colchester, and York; while woollens were spun and wove, though to a less extent, in Devonshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Berkshire Sussex, and Wales. (43.) _Regulations regarding Staples._--The _staple_, or market for wool, was fixed by act of Parliament (27 Edward III.) in particular towns of England, but was afterwards removed by law to Calais, and English merchants were prohibited from exporting any goods from the staple, or, in other words, foreign navigation was abandoned. To the custom of taking subsidies in kind, may be traced the principle of those multifarious regulations which fixed the staple in certain towns, either in England, or more commonly on the continent; and to the fluctuating state of politics may be ascribed the shiftings which those staples so frequently underwent; but it is not easy to see the drift of many of the provisions relating to it, some of which tend to the benefit of foreign, rather than of British, commerce. (44.) The progress which this manufacture made in a very short period, may be well illustrated by the following table of exports and imports in woollen, about the middle of the fourteenth century, or twenty years after the arrival of John Kemp and his establishment. EXPORTS. Thirty-one thousand, six hundred and fifty-one and a half of wool, at L.6 value each sack, £189,909 0 0 Three thousand, thirty-six hundred and sixty-five fells, at 40s. value, each hundred at six score, 6,073 1 8 Whereof the custom amounts to 81,624 1 1 Fourteen last, seventeen dicker, and five hides of leather, after L.6 value the last 89 5 0 Whereof the custom amounts to. 6 17 6 8,061-1/2 of worsted, after 16s. 8d. value, the price is 6,717 18 4 Whereof the custom amounts to 215 13 7 --------------- Summary of the out-carried commodities in value and custom, £285,635 17 2 --------------- IMPORTS. 1,832 cloths, after L.6 value each, 10,922 0 0 Whereof the custom amounts to 91 12 0 --------------- Summary of the in-brought woollens in value and custom, £11,013 12 0