In the year 1238, the inhabitants of Gothia
(Sweden) and Frise were prevented, by their fear of the
Tartars, from sending, as usual, their ships to the herring
fishery on the coast of England; and as there was no
exportation, forty or fifty of these fish were sold for a
shilling (Matthew Paris, p. 396). It is whimsical enough,
that the orders of a Mogul khan, who reigned on the borders
of China, should have lowered the price of herrings in the
English market.