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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 ———— _—a s LL re
