Note 207 — Chapter IX · FRANCE, SPAIN, AND THE MEDITERRANEAN

In the Parliament of 1514–15 an amendment was passed to an Act of Richard III which rendered it obligatory on all merchants bringing goods from the Mediterranean to import therewith a proportionate number of bowstaves. Certain Englishmen had been proceeded against for failing to comply with this law, and the amendment made it plain that it was henceforth only to apply to aliens. This seems to indicate that in the time of Richard III there were few or no Englishmen engaged in the Mediterranean trade, since no discrimination was thought necessary in the original Act. If Richard III’s Act had been intended to apply to both Englishmen and aliens it would most probably have been expressly so stated.