Statute of the Staple
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| Citation | 27 Edward III |
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| Territorial extent | jurisdiction of England |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 1353 |
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| Relates to | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
The Ordinance of the Staple was an Ordinance issue in the Great Council in October 1353. It aimed to regularise the status of staple ports in England, Wales, and Ireland. In particular, it designated particular ports where specific goods could be exported or imported. These were called the 'staple ports'. It also established dedicated courts, known as the 'Courts of Staple', where disputes relating to commercial matters could be heard, in preference to the courts of common law.
There were two immediately prior assemblies in August 1352 and July 1353 at which it is thought the matter of Staples was discussed. The scheme for home town staples was vetted by the more parliamentary assembly in September 1353. Royal officials had already been appointed on 10 July 1353 to run the scheme when the parliament of 1354 confirmed the new scheme by that the Act of Parliament. The previous act in 1326 had given the Staple towns legal definition, but the new piece of legislation broadened and widened their trading privileges. The Act facilitated mercantile credit to promote trade (which supported by a sympathetic King Edward, was also the constitutional duty of the Commons). It highlighted the weakness of 14th-century debt system, and the need to regulate trade to improve liquidity, after the economic crisis caused by the Black Death.
The staple towns named in the statute were at Newcastle upon Tyne, York, Lincoln, Norwich, Westminster, Canterbury, Chichester, Winchester, Exeter, and Bristol, in England, as well as Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Drogheda in Ireland. In Wales the designated staple town was Carmarthen. From 1368, the wool staple was transferred away from Canterbury to Queenborough, in Kent.
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