Also 6 stapeler, stapuller. [f. STAPLE sb.2 + -ER1. Cf. med.L. stapulārius.]
1. (More fully merchant stapler.) A merchant of the Staple. (See quot. 1908.)
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron. (1811), 465. In the whiche [parlyament] … was graunted, to the mayntenaunce of his warres, l. s. of a sak of woll, for the terme of .vi. yeres; but it contynued lenger, though the marchauntes staplers ther at grudgyd. Ibid., 652. Whan kyng Edwarde was thus stablysshed in this realme, great sute and labour was made to hym for the repayment of the foresayd. xviii. M. li. to hym and other dyleueryd by the stapelers.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 659. The Lordes borowed of the Marchantes of the Staple .xviij. thousand pound, the which money the Staplers did nowe sue for vnto King Edwarde to be repayed vnto them.
1585–6. Leycester, Corr. (Camden), 398. Our staplers of late complayned for the burden layd uppon ther wares at Midleborough.
1601. J. Wheeler, Treat. Comm., 82. The Staplers Companie haue drawne the trade of English Wooll into their owne hands onely.
1607. Middleton, Fam. Love, I. iii. 84. Yon merchants were wont to be merchant staplers.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., VI. iii. (1655), I. 242. They … so divided themselves (though they be now but one) to Staplers and Merchant-Adventurers. Ibid., lii. 298. The Staplers of Hamborough and Rotterdam.
1651. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., II. vii. (1739), 44. Nor doth it appear to me that the Staplers in these times used such a course, or were other than mere Officers for the regulating of the Staple.
1890. Gross, Gild Merch., I. 140. The staplers were merchants who had the monopoly of exporting the principal raw commodities of the realm.
1893. Dict. Nat. Biogr., XXXIV. 425. McBride, John … was admitted a free stapler of Belfast on 8 April 1644.
1908. H. O. Meredith, Econom. Hist. Eng., 153. During the first half of the fifteenth century the Merchant Staplers were a powerful company, whose members lived either in English ports or in Calais, who directed the export trade of the country.
1912. Eng. Hist. Rev., XXVII. Oct., 811. This strengthens the hypothesis that the staplers and the adventurers sprang from a common root.
† b. A dealer in ‘staple-ware.’ Obs.
1532–3. in E. Law, Hampton Crt. Pal. (1885), 347. Payd to Thomas Ostley, stapuller, for 18 ffother, 12 cwt. 3 qrs. 21 lb. of leade to cover the Kynges New Hall.
1890. Gross, Gild Merch., I. 148. The staplers, who dealt in certain raw materials.
2. A trader who buys wool from the grower to sell to the manufacturer: = WOOLSTAPLER.
a. 1552. Leland, Itin. (1769), IV. 113. Norton is a pretty uplandish Towne in Worcestershire, and there be fayre Houses in it of Staplers, that use to buy Wooll.
1600. Holland, Livy, Topogr. Rome, 1376. Æquimelium is betweene Velabrum and the Capitoll, neere to the staplers wooll shops.
1667. O. Heywood, Heart-Treasure, ii. 9. Every Trades-man lays up that which is fit for his Calling; Cloathiers, Staplers, Tanners, Husbandmen, have all their peculiar provisions, suited to their vocations.
1707. Lond. Gaz., No. 4341/4. George Wagstaffe, of Glossop…, Stapler.
1805. Luccock, Nat. Wool, 133. If the opinion of staplers be correct, the sheep in extreme old age appears to lose the faculty of producing a valuable wool.
1863. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., III. vi. (1876), 367. The Leeds manufacturer, who purchases wool from the stapler, pays for it by a cheque.
1881. Daily News, 29 Aug., 3/6. Spinners buy with hesitation and caution and just to cover urgent requirement. Staplers, however, maintain quotations with a tolerable degree of firmness.
1885. F. H. Bowman, Struct. Wool, Gloss., 358. Stapler. A merchant who buys wool from the farmer and sorts it into its various qualities for the manufacturer.
