Stranica 164 [164]
OCR
142 COMMERCE entered, the grocers, fishmongers, the drapers, and others. Twelve companies commonly take precedence of all others. Though the mercers were not incorporated till the reign of Richard II, they take precedence of the goldsmiths, linen-armourers, and other older companies, the grocers ranking next, the drapers after them, then the fishmongers, and the goldsmiths fifth. These companies, though at first they did much to regulate trade, were not themselves traders. They did not in any way resemble the modern limited or unlimited "Co." By degrees many of them drifted away altogether from the trade whose name they bore, but the goldsmiths, the fishmongers, the plumbers, the stationers, and a few more, still endeavour to deserve their titles. As a rule, however, they are the trustees of large endowments for charitable purposes, and administer them admirably. In the reign of James I many of them took up lands in Ulster, and when, under the pressure of a transient and misguided wave of public opinion, they sold some of their estates, the unfortunate tenants found out too late what a foolish
