The limits of the Port of London, never defined until the reign of Charles II., seem to have been always understood as reaching from the North Foreland to London Bridge. Queenhithe, which, early in the thirteenth century, employed thirty-eight men as carriers, was the oldest landing-place and port. Its present appearance is, save for the warehouses round it, nearly the same as it has always been, substituting the small vessels then in use for the barges and lighters which now lie in that muddy port. Billingsgate was another landing-place at which the King’s Customs were collected. As trade increased it was found necessary to provide increased accommodation, and the following places were appointed, but long afterwards, for the general lading and discharging places for all kinds of goods to be landed and shipped between sunrise and sunset. (Strype.)
Brewers’ Quay. Chesters’ Quay. Galley Quay. Wool Dock. Custom House Quay. Porter’s Quay. Wiggon’s Quay. Young’s Quay. Ralph’s Quay. Dice Quay. Smart’s Quay. Somer’s Quay. Buttolph Wharf. Hammon’s Quay. Gaunt’s Quay. Cock’s Quay. Fresh Wharf. Lyon Quay. Sab’s Dock. Bear Quay.
Billingsgate was appointed only for fish, corn, salt, stones, victuals, and fruit. The Bridge House for corn and other provisions. The Steel Yard for merchant strangers of that Guild.
“By far the most important results of the Norman Conquest, as far as English Industry and Commerce were concerned, lay in the new communications which were opened up with other parts of the Continent.” (W. Cunningham, _Growth of English Industry_.) These words strike a keynote. It was necessary for the growth and development of the national spirit that the insular isolation of Britain should be swept away. No doubt the close connection of the country with the richest provinces of France for four hundred years brought with it many serious evils, but the stimulus it gave to trade proved of incalculable advantage. And the isolation of England was swept away just at the right moment, when everywhere in western Europe there were springing into wealth and power and independence cities, which had been the private property of barons, or the mere ruins of what had once been busy and populous places. The first essential to trade is some kind of security that an agreement will be kept and a debt will be paid. This security was then impossible unless in a fair, regularly and lawfully held, with its own court; or in a town when the municipality defended the foreign merchant.