Incorporated in 1407, this was a trading company, which by the mid-16c controlled three-quarters of English foreign trade and had superseded the *Hanse. Its first continental centre was at Bruges; it moved to Antwerp in 1446, and Calais in 1493, then back to Antwerp in 1496. The company transferred to Hamburg in 1567, and acquired a Dutch base in the 1580s. It was attacked and resented for exercising a monopoly and finally lost its charter in 1689. -
Cf. Staple1
Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases. Christopher Coredon with Ann Williams.