Staple right
The staple right, also translated stacking right or storage right, both from the Dutch stapelrecht, was a medieval right accorded to certain ports, the staple ports. It required merchant barges or ships to unload their goods at the port and to display them for sale for a certain period, often three days. Only after that option had been given to local customers were traders allowed to reload their cargo and travel onwards with the remaining unsold freight. Limited staple rights were sometimes given to towns along major trade-routes like Görlitz, which obtained staple rights for salt and woad, and Lviv gained them in 1444. A related system existed in medieval and Tudor England, covering the sale and export of wool and leather and known as the Staple. Germany Staple rights can be compared to the market rights, the right to hold a regular market, as they were extremely important for the economic prosperity of the river cities that possessed such rights, such as Leipzig (1507), Mainz and Cologne (where a Stapelhaus still stands as a reminder of the former right). At the same time, they created a strong barrier against long-distance trade because of the increased costs and the time