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.[1][2]
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.