charity, right and conscience have made an ordinance among themselves to the prejudice of all other Englishmen, that no Englishman resorting to the said mart, shall either buy or sell any merchandise there, unless he shall first have compounded and made fine with the said Fellowship of Merchants of London, at their pleasure; upon pain of forfeiture to the said Fellowship of such their said merchandise. Which fine, imposition, and exaction, at the beginning, when first taken, was demanded by colour of the _Fraternity of St. Thomas Becket_; at which time it was only an old noble sterling. And so by colour of such feigned holiness, it hath been suffered to be taken of a few years past: it was afterwards increased to 100 shillings, Flemish; but now the said Fellowship of London take of every Englishman or young merchant, being there, at his first coming £40 sterling for a fine, to suffer him to buy, and sell his own goods. By reason whereof, all merchants not of the said Fellowship, do withdraw themselves from the said marts: whereby the woollen cloth of this realm, which is one of the greatest commodities of the same, as well as sundry other English commodities of the same, as well as sundry other English commodities, are not sold and got off as in times past, but are for want of sale thereof, in divers parts, where such clothes are made, conveyed to London, and there sold at an undervalued price, even below what they cost the makers. Moreover the merchandise of those foreign parts, imported by the said Fellowship, is sold to your complainants and other subjects at so high a price that the buyers cannot live thereupon; by reason whereof all the cities and towns of the realm are falling into great poverty, ruin and decay: and the King’s customs and subsidies, and the navy of the land greatly decreased. It was therefore enacted (12 Hen. VII. c. 6) that all Englishmen from henceforth should and might freely resort to the Coasts of _Flanders_, _Holland_, Zealand, Brabant, and other parts adjoining, under the obedience of the Archduke; and at their marts or fairs there, sell their merchandise freely, without exaction, fine, imposition, or contribution taken or received of any of them by the said Fraternity or Fellowship, excepting only the sum of ten marks [£6 13_s._ 4_d._] sterling, on pain of forfeiting £20 for every time they take more; and shall also forfeit to the person so imposed on ten times so much as contrary to this act was taken of him. See 1554.