Staple

A term applied to the chief products of England, and also to certain towns in Flanders where alone these commodities were permitted to be sold. These transactions were carried out under the surveillance of Government officers, and it was obligatory on the vendor to bring back a certain proportion of the proceeds of the sale in coin. Edward III, however, named nine English towns as the Staple towns, and made it a penal offence for an English man to carry any of the staple commodities beyond the seas.