ABSTRACT
The customs records would probably show, if they were more complete, that Edward IV was engaged in the exportation of wool, and perhaps of other English products as well, from the very beginning of his reign. On 26th April, 1465, Edward chose two other men, Luca de Pausano and Francesco de Lawrens, or Lawtans, to export two hundred sacks of wool to Italy for him, and all this wool, and apparently even a little more, was shipped by them from Sandwich in the following month. Regarding Edward’s commercial ventures during 1466 and 1467 little can be found out, as the customs records for those years are exceedingly scanty. The bishop engaged a Florentine merchant named Louis Bernardo to act as his factor, and the Mary of Lushbourne, which left London soon after Edward’s accession, was laden with 200 sacks and 25 doves of the bishop’s wool.
