The king’s marriage with Philippa of Hainault, which had taken place at York on the 30th January, 1328, had been popular with the city(461) as tending to open up trade with Flanders. Hitherto nearly all the wool produced by this country had been sent to Flanders for manufacture, the export trade being so large that the king is said to have received more than £30,000 in a single year from duties levied on this commodity alone.(462) We have already seen how, in order to punish the Countess of Flanders for injuries inflicted upon English merchants, the king’s grandfather resorted, in 1270, to the expedient of forbidding all export of wool to her country.(463) The misery which her half-starved people were then compelled to suffer soon induced the Countess to come to terms. It was also in no small measure owing to the fear of a similar stoppage by the intervention of the French fleet, that the Flemings laid aside their neutrality in 1339, and openly assisted Edward in his war with France. (M277) Towards the close of the last reign the "staples" or market towns for the sale of certain commodities, but more especially of wool, had been removed from the continent and established at various places in England, Ireland and Wales.(464) London was one of those places. No wool was to be exported abroad until it had remained at one or another of the staples for a period of forty days. This rule appears however to have been relaxed by Edward II, in favour of all staple towns but London; merchants being allowed to remove their goods from other staples after a stay of only fifteen days. The London merchants, therefore, were under the disadvantage of finding the market always forestalled. Edward III had not long been on the throne before they took the opportunity of submitting this hardship not only to the king, but also to the queen-mother, and prayed that the relaxation of the rule touching the forty days with respect to other staples might be withdrawn.(465) Their prayer, however, would seem to have had but little effect, for within a week of the petition to the king we find that monarch issuing an order to the collector of customs on wool, leather and wool-fells in the port of London, to enforce the delay of forty days before goods could be removed.(466) (M278) Nor was this the only grievance that the London merchants had. In order to raise money to put down the rebellion of the Scots which had broken out soon after his accession, he had recourse to an extra tax upon wool, leather, and wool-fells. The money thus raised was to be considered a loan, receipts being given to the merchants under the king’s seal, known as "Coket," and the merchants in return were to be allowed absolute free trade from the 2nd July, 1327, the date of the writ, up to the following Christmas.(467) The Londoners objected altogether to this impost, on the grounds that they had never been consulted on the matter, and had never given their assent.(468)