STEELYARD, MERCHANTS OF THE, a body of aliens who enjoyed various commercial privileges in England from an early period to the middle of the 16th century. " The emperor's men," mentioned in some ordinances of Ethelred II. (A.D. 978.1016) as trading to England, were the predecessors of the merchants of the Teutonic Guild. In 1220 the merchants of Cologne had a hall or factory in London, for the legal possession of which they mado an acknowledgment to the king. " It swans that this Gildhall, by the association of the merchants of other cities with those of Cologne, became in time the general factory and residence of all the German merchants in London, and was the same that was afterwards known by the name of the German Gildhall (" Gildhalla Teulordeorum"). (Macpherson, Animals of Commerce,' i. 333.) In 1235, Henry I ll. gave them permission to attend fairs in any part of England, and also to buy and sell in London, saving the liberties of the city ; and they were exempted from several customs and payments. In the 15th century we find the Hanse nierchanta engrossing the privi leges of the above ancient Incorporation, Cologne being a member of flue League, and the whole of the German merchants resident in London probably belonging to one or other of the ilanae towns. At least, after 1175, they had but ono factory in London, which was the Steel-yard, or Steel-house, as it was sometimes called, situate a little cast of Dowgate, between Thames Street and the river. Tho Thamemstreet front was fortified with three porteullised gateways; and the whole was inclosed by strong walls, within which, more than once, and especially on the irruption of Wat Tyler's mob in 1331, the Hansa merchants saved themselves, while the Flemings and other foreigners fell victims to the national prejudice. In the interior was the great hall, adorned with pictures by liana Holbein, in which the corporation held their councils and partook of their feasts. On the west aide of the hall was a garden, adorned with vines and rare fruit trees. Tho Thames front was a quay, with all the conveniences then known for embarking or disembarking goods. The remainder of the area was occupied by lofty warehouses and streets of booths for the reception and display of the necessaries and luxuries imported from the north, south, and east,—fine cloths, wines, silks, dried fruits, spices, with hemp, tallow, furs, salt-fish, and iron. Strict order was preserved in the building, whose gates were shut at nine in the evening ; and to the corporation was entrusted the care and repair of Billingsgate ; every master being under an obligation to provide harness for war, the same as a native. Tho old building was destroyed in the fire of London in
1666. That which succeeded differed little from the other erections in its neighbourhood. The Steelyard was in the parish of Allhallows, at which church the members attended, and which they embellished with painted windows. After the fire of London, on the rebuilding of the church, they contributed the carved oak screen which still sepa rates the choir from the nave. In 1673, the inconvenience of attend ing a service in a foreign language induced them to petition for one of the abandoned churches, and that in Little Trinity Lane was granted to them, which has thenceforward been used by the German residents in London for divine service in their own tongue. In 1475, Edw. IV. entered into a treaty with the Hanseatic League, by which the privi leges of the London factory were placed on a more secure foundation, instead of being granted only for a short period, and being at times curtailed, and even occasionally suspended. By way of settling former disputes, it was thought worth while to pay them 10,000/., or rather to remit customs duties on their goods to that amount. The king was to appoint two or more judges to act without the ordinary legal formalities in all civil and criminal cases between the Hanse merchants and English ; and similar regulations were to bo adopted in reference to English sub ject' residing at the Hanse towns. The fee simple of the Steelyard was conveyed by this treaty; also the Steelyard at Boston, and a house at Lynn. Under this treaty and their old charters, the Hansa merchants of the Steelyard were enabled to monopolise certain branches of trade, in which they were exempted from duties payable by other traders ; and by their combination and capital. they were doubtless formidable competitors in other branches of foreign trade; but though the activity of foreigners might be tolerated while native capital was wanting, yet a trade from which English merchants were virtually excluded could not possibly be permanent. The industry and energy of the English trader made him a formidable competitor. He not only, in spite of the troubles of the wars of the Roses, exerted himself to supply domestic wants, but he actually, as is noticed above, had pushed himself into the traffic of the Baltic. In addition, the requirements of commerce had introduced the use of larger vessels ; which could not well bo adopted by the Hanse merchants, as they could not come above London Bridge. All things were working against the interests of the Steelyard.