Calais and the Staple Company.

The situation of Calais as an outpost of English territory – the last survival of Edward III's gains during the earlier stages of the Hundred Years’ War – had two concomitants which directly affected the members of the Staple company in this period. One was the need to keep the town and its marches garrisoned and fortified against possible attack. The other was the anomalous position of its currency which, as described in a previous chapter, often diverged from the valuation of the same coins at either Bruges and Antwerp or London. The closure of the Calais mint in 1442 had meant that it was no longer possible to insist on the use of sterling coin in the town. But what the government no longer reaped from the recoinage of foreign bullion it could recoup, to some extent at least, by instituting special tariffs to its own advantage. There had been times in the past when the staplers’ stocks of wool were seized to meet the demands of the unpaid soldiers in Calais, or used to provide a loan to one or other side in the quarrels between York and Lancaster. By the agreement reached with Edward IV in 1466, a convenient means was found of discharging the king's own large debt to the Staple company, while at the same time he ensured regular payment of the wages of the Calais garrison. The company now became directly responsible for finding the wages and maintaining the defences of Calais out of the customs and subsidy taxes which were levied on the exports of its members, and which had long formed a substantial part of the crown's revenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]