This proclamation of 1581 by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, assigns a warship to a wool convoy operating between London and Flanders. This show how reliant on English naval power the English wool trade was at a period of heightened international tension and imminent war with Spain (another naval power). The cost of the venture, £80, was to be borne by the wool staples across England, a sign that the infrastructure of the entire wool industry depended on safe links with the continent, routed through the port of London.
Catalogue reference: E 101/668/48 (date: 2 March 1581)
