London with their ships and manufactures, were in some respects privileged, but were still required to pay the duties, and forbidden to "forestall the market to the prejudice of the citizens." At Easter and Christmas the German merchants,[1] resident in the city, were further required to pay for the privilege of trading two pieces of grey cloth and one piece of brown cloth, ten pounds of pepper, five pairs of gloves, and two casks of wine. The larger description of vessels engaged at this period in the foreign trade, appear to have discharged their cargoes on the Middlesex shore at wharves or jetties, between the Tower and London bridge, while the smaller craft lay above bridge, chiefly in the Fleet river near the port of Ludgate, where many of the merchants then resided. Within the limits of the Fleet to the west, and of Billingsgate to the east, were to be found the warehouses and dwellings of all the traders, and the chief portion of London was then, and, indeed, for two or three centuries after the Conquest, embraced within those limits.
Olaf, king of Norway, his ships, Olaf, who had given so much trouble to Ethelred, having by his piratical excursions gained considerable knowledge of the wants of various countries, endeavoured on his accession to the crown of Norway to encourage commerce in his own country. With this object he founded Nidaros, now known as Drontheim, and made it an emporium for trade. He also built various ships of war, larger than had ever been seen in the Northern seas. One of these,
- ↑ Then called "Emperor's men," the forerunners, probably, of the "Merchants of the Steel-yard." See also Brompton, p. 897, quoted by Macpherson, p. 277, and "Ancient Laws," p. 127; Prynne, "Annales," p. 105.
