[14] Ayloff’s Calendar, p. 88. Some idea may be formed of the injury which the trade of Scotland sustained by the long protracted and impoverishing warfare she had to maintain in support of her independence, from the circumstance of James I. being obliged, in 1430, to commission two citizens of London to send him the following articles for his own use: viz. 20 tuns of wine, 12 bows, 4 dozen yards of cloth of different colours, and 12 yards of scarlet, 20 yards of red worsted, 8 dozen pewter vessels, 1200 wooden bowls (or caps), packed in 4 barrels, 3 dozen coverels, a bason and font, 2 summer saddles, 1 hackney saddle, 1 woman’s saddle, with furniture, 2 portmanteaus, 4 yards of motley, 5 yards of morray, 5 yards of black cloth of Lyn, 12 yards kersey, 12 skins of red leather, and some trifling articles. These goods, shipped on board a vessel belonging to London, were secured by a royal order from being molested by English cruizers, but they were to pay the customary duties. _Fœdera_, vol. x. p. 470.
[16] This traffic was frequently interrupted by war; in time of peace, it was carried on to a considerable extent. The first notice that we have of its revival after the wars of Wallace and Bruce, occurs in a letter of safe-conduct granted 12th January 1359, to Andrew Murray and Alan Erskine, two Scottish drovers, with three horsemen and their servants for travelling through England, or the King’s foreign dominions, for a year, with horses, oxen, cows, and other goods and merchandise.--Fœdera, vol. vi. p. 114.
[17] The greyhounds, “_leporarii_,” of Scotland were considered so superior, that the Duke of Berry, in France, thought it worth while to send his valet, and three other men, to procure some of them, and to obtain letters of safe-conduct from the King of England, to enable them to travel through his dominions on that business.--Fœdera, vol. vii. page 831.
[18] By the chamberlain’s accounts, it appears that the 178 hogsheads cost 439_l._ 16s. 8d. Sterling, while the 67 hogsheads and 1 pipe cost 373_l._ 16s. 8d. Could this difference arise from the latter being of superior quality, or from the market being overstocked, in consequence of the expected demand? No doubt there were speculators in those days, as well as at present.