[173] _Privy Council Register_, Vol. XIV. p. 93, 6 May, 1586. The difficulty in the cloth trade was connected with the concessions granted to the Merchant Adventurers. Their privileges forced the English manufacturer to sell cloth to them only. When there was a slackness in trade these concessions were always questioned or annulled. In December, 1586, the Company say they will raise a stock and buy more cloths than they can at present sell so that the workfolk of Somerset and Wilts can be employed. If this fails they consent that the trade shall be thrown open. This was apparently afterwards done, but difficulties were still thrown in the way of the "Merchant strangers." _Privy Council Register_, p. 237, Sept. 1587. The Earl of Leicester wrote both to Walsingham and Burleigh on the subject. In his letter to Walsingham he says the towns of the West, Bristol and Hampton, are falling into decay, and there is an "exstraeme cry and compleynt of y^e poore for lack of work such as have bin sett on work heretofore by clothiers." The cause, the clothiers say, is because they "can not have reasonable price nor utterance for their cloth in London." He says that "sondry of the most hablest ... are worthie great favo^r and thanks for they to ther great loss kepe more now on than ever they did for the poor's sake." _Dom. State Papers, Queen Eliz._, Vol. 200, Nos. 5 and 10. With regard to the scarcity of corn the Council also took further action. Burleigh carefully considered and amended a proclamation for dealing with the difficulty[174]. The three judges, Popham, Mildmay and Manwood, to whom the matter was referred for consideration, made a series of recommendations[175]." These were embodied in a set of orders, the draft of which is amended in Burleigh's own hand[176]. After being signed by the Council[177] these orders were issued early in 1587 to the justices throughout the country[178]. They probably formed the nucleus of the Scarcity Book of Orders of the earlier Stuarts which in turn was the forerunner of the Orders and Directions of January 1630/1. [174] Lansdowne MSS., Nos. 48, 51. [175] _Ib._, Vol. 48, No. 52. [176] _Ib._ See Appendix. [177] The Council appear to have held a meeting on the last day of the year 1586 expressly to sign these orders. _Cal. of State Papers_, Dec. 31st, 1586.