The import was chiefly linen and fine cloth, and some wine.
England seems to have been extremely drained at this time by Edward's foreign expeditions and foreign subsidies, which probably was the reason why the exports so much exceed the imports.
The first toll we read of in England for mending the highways, was imposed in this reign: it was that for repairing the road between St.
Giles's and Temple Bar.[***] In the first of Richard II., the parliament complain extremely of the decay of shipping during the preceding reign, and assert that one seaport formerly contained more vessels than were then to be found in the whole kingdom.

This calamity they ascribe to the arbitrary seizure of ships by Edward for the service of his frequent expeditions.[****] The parliament in the fifth of Richard renew the same complaint;[*****] and we likewise find it made in the forty-sixth of Edward III.
* 11 Edward III.cap.5.Rymer, vol.iv.p.

723.

Murimuth p.
88.
** 11 Edward III.cap.

2.
*** 28 Edward III.cap.