Cely Papers - Richard III Society - New Zealand Branch

Xll THE CELY PAPERS.
limits of the county from which it came, or, in the case of Yorkshire
and Lincolnshire, outside the riding or part of the county to
which it belonged. He was to be sworn in before the Exchequer to
exercise his calling uprightly, and was to seal each package with a
seal appointed by the Crown, in such a manner that the package
could not be opened without breaking the seal. The collectors of
Customs in the various ports were to make entries in their books
of the names of merchants shipping wool, its quantity and description,
and were to return the entries within a month to the Lord
Treasurer. Wool taken to Calais in or before the February of any
year, and remaining unsold by April 6 following, was classed as
old wool. We must remember that it must have been shorn in
the previous summer; none would be cut in autumn or winter.
The great winter " shipping was, in fact, of fells (skins with the wool
on them) of sheep killed in the autumn. In the absence of root
crops and of winter feed of any kind, a great slaughter of cattle,
large and small, took place at or before Martinmas. The flesh was
salted down for the winter.
One sarpler of such old wool was to be sold with every three of
new, but such old wool was to be inspected in Calais, and no buyer
was to be forced to pay more for it than for new of the same kind
or county, nor more than it was valued at on first coming to
Calais. If any fraud were discovered in connexion with this old
wool, it was to be adjudicated upon by men appointed by the
Captain or Lieutenant of Calais, but not by the same men who
had been concerned with its prior valuation.
No merchant, or clothmaker, accustomed to buy wool of only
one place or quality was to be compelled to buy another kind.
ut a merchant accustomed to buy various kinds was to be compelled
to buy old wool of the kinds he usually bought, if it remained
unsold in the market, subject to an examination of the quality.
At Calais royal officers (commissarii) were appointed to exercise
a general superintendence over the working of these rules, and the
conduct of packers, clerks of the Customs, and others. They were,