ley tariff. Then, in 1340, you will find
another statute for the liberties of merchants, that they should be
allowed the freedom of the kingdom; and a new duty is imposed on wool.
Then we find the abolition of the laws of "the staple"; foreign staple
towns had been abolished just before. The "staple" was the _town_ in
which one commodity was mainly dealt in. Every commodity in England
had some particular town, where the principal market was for it; just
as, with us, the boot and shoe market of the United States is supposed
to be in Boston, the money market in New York, beef and hogs in
Chicago. In England, in the Middle Ages, they really provided that a
certain trade should have its home in a certain town; not necessarily
the only one, but very often in that one only. Thus there were certain
towns for the carrying on of the wool industry; you could only trade
in wool in those towns. The word "staple," from meaning the town or
market, got applied by an easy process to the commodity dealt in; so
that when we now say that the Vermont staple is hay, we mean that this
is the main crop raised in Vermont. But the staple--like the modern
stockyard or exchange--tended to monopoly and was abolished for this
reason.

In 1340 and 1344 we find two picturesque statutes showing how the
English were getting jealous of the Norman kings: "The realm and
people of England shall not be subject to the King or people of
France"--that is, that the customs and law of France, although their
kings were French, were not to be applied to England. Then in the
royal edict that year when King Edward assumed the title, King of
France, they caused him to put in a statement that no inference was to
be drawn from his assuming the flower de luces in the first quarter
of his arms. The present English coat of arms is modern; instead of
having the Norman leopards in the upper right hand and lower left
hand, they then had the blue field and the fleurs de lys of France in
the upper, and the Norman leopards only in the lower corner; and this
lasted until the time of Charles I. In that part of Normandy which now
still remains to the English crown, that is, in Guernsey and Jersey,
you find to-day that only the leopards, not the arms of Great Britain,
are in use. But then again, in 1344, we have a statute (which, by the
way, itself is written in French) complaining that the French king is
trying to destroy the English language. They were getting very jealous
of an