Very early in their history the English began to experience commercial rivalry with the French, and one of the first products to be strongly affected, to England’s detriment, was gloves. As far back as the reign of Edward IV., in 1462, we find the English glove trade protected by prohibitory laws. These laws, in later years, must have become obsolete, as they do not appear ever to have been repealed, and foreign gloves were imported into the country soon after the Reformation. In 1564, however, England forbade any gloves from abroad to enter her ports. Nothing was said about the raw materials being brought from other lands; but France saw fit to curtail the shipment of kid skins outside her boundaries, and thus the English were thrown entirely upon their own resources. French kid gloves—whose quality, after all, it has been impossible to equal in other countries—continued to be smuggled into the British realm to a greater extent, we may believe, than the authorities then realized. The titled people, accustomed to having the best of everything, infinitely preferred the French luxury to the homemade article; and so, it was secretly procured. But, generally speaking, after 1564, the English manufactured their own gloves from native skins, and the trade increased and became prosperous. On the occasion of the granting of the charter in 1638, certain abuses had crept into the industry, and it was to obviate these conditions that the document was demanded and granted by the king. It reads: “Whereas, by an humble petition presented unto us by our loveing subjects, living in and about our Cities of London and Westminster, using the arte, trade or mistery of Glovers, “We have been informed that their families are about four hundred in number, and upon them depending about three thousand of our subjects, who are much decayed and impoverished by reason of the great confluence of persons of the same arte, trade or mistery into our said Cities of London and Westminster, from all parts of our kingdome and dominion of Wales, that, for the most parte, have scarcely served any time thereunto, working of gloves in chambers and corners, and taking apprentices under them, many in number, as well women as men, that become burdensome to the parishes wherein they inhabit, and are a disordered multitude, living without proper government, and making _naughtie and deceitful gloves_: And that our subjects aforesaid, that lawfully and honestly use the said arte, trade or mistery, are, by these means, not only prejudiced at home, but the reputation the English had in foreign parts, where they were a great commoditie and held in goode esteeme, is much impaired. And also, that by the engrossing of leather into a few men’s hands, our said subjects are forced to buye bad leather at excessive rates, to their further impoverishment....” etc. ... etc.