i.D. 1689 
1776. 
New enter- 
prise was 
shown tn 
mang 
528 PARLIAMENTARY COLBERTISM 
Hostmen were a matter of frequent complaint; while, on 
the other hand, the Hostmen urged that the action of the 
Government in pressing keel-men for the fleet caused a 
serious interruption to the trade. Like other lines of com- 
merce at this period, this trade became more and more open; 
the charter of the Hostmen was not renewed after 1679, 
though they were an influential body of traders. 
With the growing demand for coals® we see signs of 
increased enterprise in carrying on mining operations. Gray 
asserts that as early as 16494 some “ South Gentlemen hath, 
t Brand, op. cit. 1. 300. All these obstacles must have tended to keep up the 
price of coal in London; the complaints on this head are of frequent recurrence ; 
C. Povey attributed the evil to the desperate competition among dealers and con- 
sequent fraud and oppression (The Unhappiness of England as to its Trade by 
Sea and Land, 28); see also State Papers, Treasury, 1708—1714, cxli. 2. A con- 
;iderable number of petitions were presented in 1731 (Brand, m. 306) ; and during 
he frost of 1740, the House of Commons addressed the Crown in favour of 
forcing the law about regulating the price of coals (Parl. Hist. x1. 435). 
3 The chief struggle over the privileges of the Newcastle men took place in the 
lime of Cromwell. This town possessed very special privileges under a charter 
sranted by Queen Elizabeth in 1601, and these had been specially preserved in the 
Act of 1624. With these powers the old companies had all come to the front 
again, and they were brought into bitter hostility with the neighbouring town of 
Shields. The chief assertor of the common law rights, in opposition to special 
privileges, was a brewer named Ralph Gardner, who certainly underwent great 
personal sacrifices in the cause, and brought startling allegations against the 
Newcastle men for the way they exercised their powers. He asserts that the 
action of the burgesses from 1642 to 1644 “caused coals to be four pound 
» chaldron, and salt four pound the weigh, the poor inhabitants forced to flie the 
sountry, others to quarter all armies upon free quarter ; heavy taxes to them all, both 
English, Scots and Garrisons; plundered of all they had; land lying waste; coal- 
sits drowned; salt-works broken down; hay and corn burnt; town pulled down; 
mens wives carried away by the unsatiable Scots and abused; all being occasioned 
by that corporations disaffection ; and yet to tyrannize as is hereafter mentioned.” 
England's Grievance Discovered. Address to the Reader. The reply of the 
Corporation, who were represented in London by Mr S. Hartlib, has been printed 
trom a MS. of Alderman Hornby's on Conservatorship of Tyne in Richardson, 
Reprints of Rare Tracts, m. p. 35. Many of Gardner's accusations are met by 
» simple denial of the alleged facts; in regard to the conservancy of the river, the 
most serious question, the Corporations said that they had acted on the advice of 
the authorities of the Trinity House, p. 62. They claimed to retain special privi- 
leges on political grounds, however, as their town was a defence against the Scots. 
Dne of their trade corporations, the Hostmen, paid £8000 a year to the publie 
ireasury and might well expect their privileges to be protected, pp. 43, 44. 
* Ag in other trades which looked to a distant market, there were occasional 
ductuations, with consequent difficulties between employers and employed. 
sspecially in 1740 (Brand, op. cit. mw. 307, 309), and 1765. (Macpherson, mr. 420.) 
4 Grav. Chorooranhia. 25.