The Staple

In European historiography, the term "staple" refers to the entire medieval system of trade and its taxation; its French equivalent is étape, its German equivalent stapeln, words deriving from Late Latin stapula, derived from stabulum. designating a system that Hadrianus Junius considered to be of Gaulish origin.

Under this system, the government or the ruler required that all overseas trade in certain goods be transacted at specific designated market towns or ports, referred to as the 'staple ports'. The antiquary John Weever, quoting the 16th-century Tuscan merchant Lodovico Guicciardini, defined a staple town "to be a place, to which by the prince's authority and privilege wool, hides of beasts, wine, corn or grain, and other exotic or foreign merchandize are transferred, carried or conveyed to be sold." At these specified privileged places, which were invariably towns, accredited merchants, later to become organized in England as Merchants of the Staple, were required to submit their goods to inspection. In England they were obliged to pay a levy to the Crown on goods for export to the continent of Europe. The system made it easy for local and regional governments to monitor the overseas trade and to levy taxes and derive income and revenue on it.