hts of superiority over
that of others. An internal elective government seems to have been
required for the administration of a common revenue, and of other
business incident to their association.[47] They became more numerous
and more peculiarly commercial after that era, as well from the increase
of trade as through imitation of similar fraternities existing in many
towns of France. The spirit of monopoly gave strength to those
institutions, each class of traders forming itself into a body, in order
to exclude competition. Thus were established the companies in corporate
towns, that of the Weavers in London being perhaps the earliest;[48] and
these were successively consolidated and sanctioned by charters from
the crown. In towns not large enough to admit of distinct companies, one
merchant guild comprehended the traders in general, or the chief of
them; and this, from the reign of Henry II. downwards, became the
subject of incorporating charters. The management of their internal
concerns, previously to any incorporation, fell naturally enough into a
sort of oligarchy, which the tenor of the charter generally preserved.
Though the immunities might be very extensive, the powers were more or
less restrained to a small number. Except in a few places, the right of
choosing magistrates was first given by king John; and certainly must
rather be ascribed to his poverty than to any enlarged policy, of which
he was utterly incapable.[49]

[Sidenote: Prosperity of English towns.]

[Sidenote: London.]

From the middle of the twelfth century to that of the thirteenth the
traders of England became more and more prosperous. The towns on the
southern coast exported tin and other metals in exchange for the wines
of France; those on the eastern sent corn to Norway--the Cinque Ports
bartered wool against the stuffs of Flanders.[50] Though bearing no
comparison with the cities of Italy or the Empire, they increased
sufficiently to acquire importance at home. That vigorous prerogative of
the Norman monarchs, which kept down the feudal aristocracy, compensated
for whatever inferiority there might be in the population and defensible
strength of the English towns, compared with those on the continent.
They had to fear no petty oppressors, no local hostility; and if they
could satisfy the rapacity of the crown, were secure from all other
grievances. London, far above the rest, our ancient and noble capital,
might, even in those early time