Feats [transactions] of merchandise
"[O]n 11 September 1581 the crown issued ‘The Letters Patents, or Privileges Granted by Her Majesty to Sir Edward Osborne, Master Richard Staper, and certain other Mer- chants of London for their trade into the dominions of the Great Turk’. Under its terms Osborne was appointed governor of the proposed joint- stock company... He would lead a team of merchants including his close associate Staper, Thomas Smith and William Garrett tasked with nominating up to twelve others who were allowed ‘during the term of seven years from the date of these patents, freely [to] trade, traffic and use feats [transactions] of merchandise into, and from the dominions of the said Grand Signior’. (Jerry Brotton, This Orient Isle- Elizabethan England and the Islamic World)
What does the emphasized phrase mean?
Top answer
That is an obsolete meaning of "feat". It meant "practice", "profession", the minutiae of the craft. "Merchandise" is used oddly to modern ears, too.
- That is an obsolete meaning of "feat".
- It meant "practice", "profession", the minutiae of the craft.
- "Merchandise" is used oddly to modern ears, too.
- It means "business", like being a merchant.
- "Use" is not quite cricket, either.
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That is an obsolete meaning of "feat". It meant "practice", "profession", the minutiae of the craft. "Merchandise" is used oddly to modern ears, too. It means "business", like being a merchant. "Use" is not quite cricket, either. The three verbs there—trade, traffic and use—are a legal formula. Lawyers used to pile words on to make sure they filled all the cracks. That's where "to all intents
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