ABSTRACT
During no period of the English rule in France were the ties which united England and Gascony more numerous or more powerful than in the reign of Edward III. English ships on the outward journey, and those of Gascons returning carried great quantités of corn, wool, cloth, and fish. Besides corn Gascony received from England large quantities of herrings and of the dried fish of Cornwall and Devon. A branch of trade so profitable as that between England and Gascony naturally engaged the attention of traders of many different types and nationalities. Private merchants were also engaged in the work of supplying the King's demand for wine and their professional knowledge was utilised by their being sent to Gascony for this purpose. The wine brought by the Gascon merchants was sold in large quantities and to a variety of persons, goldsmiths, butchers, woolmongers, dealers in iron, as well as taverners and vintners being recorded as purchasers.
