Oldal 158 [158]
1 36 COMMERCE
time and for long after have been a polyglot place. The language of
the Flemings from the mouth of the Khine would not perhaps differ
so much from the Old English of the native merchants, but the High
Dutch, the German of the Easterlings, and the French of the Normans,
must have been quite as common. Down to the time of King John,
the treatment of foreigners was regulated on a simple principle. Men
of other nations were to be received in London as those nations
received the men of London. In like manner English cities were
offered reciprocal terms, London, nevertheless, asserting her supremacy
as occasion offered.
The two employments, which in the Middle Ages brought wealth
to London, were those connected with wool and those connected with
the precious metals. As much cloth, we are told, was made in London
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