Another important treaty of the same kind was made the same year with the republic of Florence, which also contains some things deserving of notice. In 1485 Richard III. had, on the application of some English merchants who proposed engaging in the trade to Pisa, appointed a Florentine merchant to be governor of his subjects who might become resident in that city, or what we should now call English consul there; and from that date in all probability is to be counted the commencement of the trade to Florence in English vessels. From the present treaty it appears that such a trade was now fairly established; and the English settled at Pisa are also spoken of in such terms as should seem to show that they already formed a considerable community. They were to have a right to hire or otherwise procure houses for their residence, and to form themselves into a corporate body, with a governor and other officers according to their own regulations; and were not only to enjoy all the privileges enjoyed by the citizens of Pisa or of Florence, but were even to be exempted from municipal taxation in all parts of the state except in Florence. For these advantages, it is true, they were to pay a good price; for it was stipulated by this treaty—which was to last for six years—both that the English should every year bring as much wool to Florence as had on an average been used to be brought, and that no wool should be allowed to be exported by foreigners from any part of the English dominions, except six hundred sacks annually by the Venetians. The treaty, therefore, secured to the Florentines as much English wool as they required, and of course at no higher prices than they had been accustomed to pay, unless their own demand should become an increasing one—for, with neither a rise in the demand nor a falling off in the supply, there could be no rise in the price; and it also tended to reduce the price of wool in the English market by checking the purchase of it by all other foreigners. This latter regulation, however, was also of the nature of a monopoly granted to the English shipowner—though at the expense of his fellow-country-man, the sheepowner.
