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STAPLE

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 784 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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STAPLE , a word which has had a curious and interesting development of meaning. The O. Eng. stapel meant a prop or support, and is to be referred to the See also:

root seen in step, See also:stamp, &c.; the meaning is also seen in the cognate Du. stapel, See also:stocks, See also:pile, Ger. See also:Maffei, step of a See also:ladder, &c. The application, in current usage, of the word to a See also:loop of See also:wire or See also:metal with two sharpened points used to See also:fix a See also:pin or See also:bolt, or to fasten wire, &c., to See also:wood, preserves the See also:original sense. A See also:special development in See also:Low See also:German of stapel gave the meaning of an orderly arranged heap of goods or stores, hence a See also:store-See also:house in which goods were arranged in a settled See also:order, the See also:idea of firmness or stability being that which runs through the changes of meaning to which the word has been subjected. This Low German word and sense was adapted in Old See also:French as etaaple, mod. etape, and applied to an established See also:market or See also:town, particularly to one which was the centre of the See also:trade in some specific commodity. Thence the word has in See also:modern-usage been transferred to a See also:principal or See also:chief commodity or See also:article of See also:consumption. In See also:English economic See also:history the See also:term " staple " was applied to those towns which were appointed by the See also:king as the centres for the trade of the See also:company of the merchants of the staple. These merchants had a See also:monopoly in the See also:purchase and export of the staple commodities of See also:England, viz, See also:wool, woolfels, See also:leather, See also:tin and See also:lead. The merchants of the staple were the origin of all English trading companies. The trade of the staple towns was under the management of a See also:mayor and constables, sometimes appointed by the merchants themselves, sometimes by the mayor of the town and sometimes by the king himself.

W. See also:

Stubbs (Const. Hist. vol. ii.) See also:dates the growth of the See also:system from the reign of See also:Edward I. The monopolies of the staple were from See also:time to time abolished and restored, but they were consolidated by a See also:statute (If 1353, the number and See also:place of the staples being fixed, the See also:custom declared, and the rights and privileges of the merchants confirmed. (See C. See also:Gross, Gild Merchants; W.

End of Article: STAPLE

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