From the opening of the reign a crowd of enactments for the regulation of trade, whether wise or unwise, shows the influence of the burgesses.

But the final division of Parliament into two Houses, a change which was completed by 1341, necessarily increased the weight of the Commons.

The humble trader who shrank from counselling the Crown in great matters of policy gathered courage as he found himself sitting side by side with the knights of the shire.

It was at the moment when this great change was being brought about that the disasters of the war spurred the Parliament to greater activity.

The enormous grants of 1340 were bought by the king's assent to statutes which provided remedies for grievances of which the Commons complained.