This charter (confirmed in 1377 and
1488) was followed by the period of Bristol's greatest prosperity, the era
of William Canyng, of the foundation of the Society of Merchant Venturers,
and of the voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot. William Canyng (1399-1474)
was five times mayor and twice represented Bristol in parliament; he
carried on a huge cloth trade with the Baltic and rebuilt St Mary
Redcliffe. At the same time cloth was exported by Bristol merchants to
France, Spain and the Levant. The records of the Society of Merchant
Venturers began in 1467, and the society increased in influence so rapidly
that in 1500 it directed all the foreign trade of the city and had a lease
of the port dues. It was incorporated in 1552, and received other charters
in 1638 and 1662. Henry VII. granted Bristol a charter in 1499 (confirmed
in 1510) which removed the theoretically popular basis of the corporation
by the provision that the aldermen were to be elected by the mayor and
council. At the dissolution of the monasteries the diocese of Bristol was
founded, which included the counties of Bristol and Dorset. The voyages of
discovery in which Bristol had played a conspicuous part led to a further
trade development. In the 16th century Bristol traded with Spain, the
Canaries and the Spanish colonies in America, shared in the attempt to
colonize Newfoundland, and began the trade in African slaves which
flourished during the 17th century. Bristol took a great share in the Civil
War and was three times besieged. Charles II. granted a formal charter of
incorporation in 1664, the governing body being the mayor, 12 aldermen, 30
common councilmen, 2 sheriffs, 2 coroners, a town clerk, clerk of the peace
and 39 minor officials, the governing body itself filling up all vacancies
in its number. In the 18th century the cloth trade declined owing to the
competition of Ireland and to the general migration of manufactures to the
northern coalfields, but the prosperity of the city was maintained by the
introduction of manufactures of iron, brass, tin and copper, and by the
flourishing West Indian trade, sugar being taken in exchange for African
slaves.

The hot wells became fashionable in the reign of Anne (who granted a
charter in 1710), and a little later Bristol was the centre of the
Methodist revival of Whitefield and Wesley. The city was small, densely
populated and dirty, with dark, narrow streets, and the mob gained an
unenviable notoriety fo