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TEXT 3. FOREIGN TRADE AND MARITIME LAW IN ENGLISH HISTORY



 

Perhaps because of its isolation from the rest of Europe by the English Channel, or perhaps due to the fact that 'England was industrially and commercially far behind other lands before the thirteenth century, England had hardly come into contact with the European sea-borne trades in the Middle Ages, although there appeared to be more foreign merchants in England than English merchants in Europe. The first wave of expansion in English overseas trade took place between 1475 and 1550. During this time, 'the volume of sales of well-known commodities (broadcloths and some other types of woollen cloth) in long familiar markets of central Europe suddenly began to grow rapidly because these markets were becoming more prosperous'. The English merchants finally settled in Antwerp, which was the centre for merchants from France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, other Mediterranean states, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Syria. During the seventeenth century, 'the value of [English] overseas trade rose fivefold. In fact, the value of exports rose from £6 million in 1700 to £40 million in 1800, and cotton exports alone reached £70 million in 1870. In the nineteenth century, English merchants virtually dominated Indian trading, and frequently visited the Persian Gulf, East Africa, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia.

Although maritime law and law merchant in England were developed mainly after the Middle Ages, the Piepowder courts in England did exercise jurisdiction over commercial disputes involving merchants who travelled from country to country. The Piepowder courts were held in fairs and market towns for the purpose of giving 'speedy justice to the travellers, which is why the Piepowder courts were also called the courts of fairs and boroughs. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the judges of Piepowder courts were themselves merchants. The courts operated under the belief that 'the man who came with dusty feet, pieds poudres, and who must recover his debts ere he left for the next mart', must be given 'speedy justice' and thus, his 'plea must be answered within a day and the case disposed of before the tide had thrice ebbed and flowed. 'The consuetudo mercatorum was enforced in the Piepowder courts' for determining disputes. The Piepowder courts gradually disappeared after the seventeenth century, perhaps as a result of the incorporation of the law merchant into common law in England.

English maritime courts, mainly local courts in seaport towns (for example, the Cinque Ports which consisted of five coastal towns), played a crucial role in the development of maritime and international commercial law in England. There was also the Court of Admiralty which was 'held in the name of the Lord High Admiral who was appointed by the Crown. The power of the English maritime courts increased as a result of England's domination of the sea after the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Although the local maritime courts contributed to the early development of maritime and commercial law in England, the Court of Admiralty exercised the most influential power in the shaping of maritime and commercial law in England, which contained many rules that we call international commercial law today. In the sixteenth century, the Court of Admiralty dealt not only with domestic cases, but also complaints 'arising out of mercantile dealing abroad'. After the law merchant became part of the common law in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Court of Admiralty became less involved in mercantile transactions.

 







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