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THE REGULATION OF TRADE, INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE

1. Assize of Measures, 1197—2. Grant to the lord of a manor of the assize of bread and ale and other liberties, 1307—3. An offence against the assize of bread, 1316—4. Inquisition touching a proposed market and fair, 1252—5. Grant of a fair at St. Ives to the abbot of Ramsey, 1202—6. Grant of a market at St. Ives to the abbot of Ramsey, 1293—7. Proceedings in the court at the fair of St. Ives, 1288—8. The Statute of Winchester, 1285—9. The recovery of debt on a recognisance, 1293—10. Procedure at a fair pursuant to the Statute for Merchants, 1287—11. The aulnage of cloth, 1291—12. The Ordinance of Labourers, 1349—13. Presentments made before the Justices of Labourers, 1351—14. Excessive prices charged by craftsmen, 1354—15. Fines levied for excessive wages, 1351—16. Writ to enforce payment of excess of wages to the collectors of a subsidy, 1350—17. Application of fines for excessive wages to a subsidy, 1351–2—18. Labour legislation; the Statute of 12 Richard II., 1388—19. Labour legislation; a Bill in Parliament, 23 Henry VI., 1444–5—20. Organisation of the Staple, 1313—21. Arguments for the establishment of home staple towns, 1319—22. Ordinances of the Staple, 1326—23. The election of the mayor and constables of a Staple town, 1358—24. Royal letters patent over-ruled by the custom of the Staple, 1436—25. Prohibition of export of materials for making cloth, 1326—26. Commercial policy, temp. Edw. IV.—27. The perils of foreign travel, 1315—28. Grant of letters of marque and reprisals, 1447—29. Grant of liberties to the merchants of Douay, 1260—30. Aliens at a fair, 1270—31. Confirmation of liberties to the merchants of Almain, 1280—32. Alien weavers in London, 1362—33. The hosting of aliens, 1442—34. An offence against Stat. 18 Henry VI. for the hosting of aliens, 1440—35. Imprisonment of an alien craftsman, c. 1440—36. Petition against usury, 1376—37. Action upon usury, c. 1480.

The documents in this section are suggestive rather than comprehensive. No attempt has been made to illustrate the industrial and commercial development of England as a whole; but its more important aspects are indicated, and the machinery of administration outlined. Down to the end of the thirteenth century industry is of local rather than of national importance, and is regulated by custom rather than by law; while there was undoubtedly considerable intercourse between town and town, the conduct of trade, the oversight of conditions of labour, and the settlement of disputes were matters for the townsmen themselves to deal with in accordance with chartered rights or intermunicipal covenants. For example, the unpaid debt of an individual burgess was exacted by the communitas burgensium to which the injured creditor belonged, from any member of the communitas burgensium to which the defaulting debtor belonged, by the method of forcible seizure of goods. Although, therefore, the state attempted to secure uniformity of weights and measures and of cloth, and to maintain the quality and cheapness of the necessaries of life in the interests of traders and consumers alike, none the less the assizes of weights and measures and of cloth (No. 1), of bread and ale (Nos. 2 and 3) and of wine, came to be regarded, as might be expected in a feudal age, as franchises to be purchased by the lord of a manor, or enforced by the elected officers of a town. The regulation of trade and industry shares the characteristic features of its environment.

The same is true of early commercial intercourse with foreign communities. The right to hold a fair is a liberty granted by the crown to a lord, and for centuries the great fairs were the chief international marts (Nos. 4–7, 30). The freedom which alien merchants enjoyed under a clause of Magna Carta was extended by charters granting privileges similar in detail to those procured by English towns (Nos. 29–31), and it is not until the reign of Edward I. that a serious attempt is made to nationalise regulation (Nos. 8–11). Thereafter conflicts arise not only between the central legislature and the local chartered body or privileged lord (No. 11), but between a growing self-conscious merchant class and the alien communities which had hitherto controlled the export and import trade of the country (Nos. 21, 22). The State assumes new responsibilities, and Parliament attempts to standardise old and enforce new regulations for the nation at large (Nos. 12, 18, 19, 25). The Statute emerges over against the Charter on the one hand and the Ordinance on the other. The difficulties of Parliament are twofold; it has to fight, first, against old concessions which would be upheld by the Courts (No. 11), and second, against the uncertain operation of the royal prerogative (No. 34). It has often been urged that the mediæval statute was little more than the expression of an ideal, and that administrative machinery was insufficient for its adequate execution. The truth is rather that Parliament was one of several competing regulative institutions, and that notwithstanding the most punctilious and inquisitorial administrative methods, its measures were neutralised by existing privileges and by fresh exemptions extracted from a chronically bankrupt and insincere monarchy. That the administration was not of itself ineffective is clear from the enforcement of the Statutes of Labourers in the fourteenth century (Nos. 12–17) and of the Statute of 18 Henry VI restricting the freedom of aliens in the fifteenth century (Nos. 33, 34). The Crown was always preoccupied with the state of the revenue; statutes are enforced or overridden, according as their operation will benefit or deplete the Exchequer. It was the experience of centuries that gave point to queen Elizabeth's affection for the prerogative. None the less great strides were made in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries towards the end largely achieved in the Tudor period. The Elizabethan legislation sums up and rounds off the work of the previous two hundred years. The regulation of wages and of the conditions of labour (Nos. 12–19), the protection of industry, commerce and shipping, making national trade an important factor in international diplomacy (Nos. 20, 22, 25,27,28), the emergence of a native mercantile class eager to win the export trade for their own country by means of the staple (Nos. 20–24), the jealousy of the alien, growing in intensity throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (Nos. 21, 33, 34, 35), the development of a home cloth manufacture competing with the best foreign products (Nos. 22, 25, 32), and the provision of remedies against the mediæval bugbear of usury (Nos. 36, 37), all assist in the gradual ripening of a national economy, the fruits of which were gathered first in the Tudor era.

AUTHORITIES

The principal modern writers dealing with the subject of this section are:—Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices; Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages; Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce; Ashley, Economic History; Ashley, James van Artevelde; Cunningham, Alien Immigrants; Putnam, The Enforcement of the Statutes of Labourers; Schanz, Englische Handelspolitik gegen Ende des Mittelalters; Varenbergh, Relations diplomatiques entre le Comté de Flandre et l'Angleterre; Ochenkowski, England's Wirthschaftliche Entwickelung im Ausgange des Mittelalters; Höhlbaum, Hansisches Urkundenbuch. See also the English and American Historical Reviews.

Contemporary authorities:—Thomas Aquinas, De Usuris; Political Poems and Songs (Wright, Rolls Series); Parliament Rolls (Record Commission); Calendars of Patent, Close and Fine Rolls (Record Office Publications).

1. Assize of Measures [Roger of Hoveden, Rolls Series, IV, 33], 1197.

It is established that all measures of the whole of England be of the same amount, as well of corn as of vegetables and of like things, to wit, one good horse load; and that this measure be level as well in cities and boroughs as without. Also the measure of wine and ale and of all liquids shall be of the same amount according to the diversity of liquids. Weights and measures also, great and small, shall be of the same amount in the whole realm, according to the diversity of wares. Measures also of corn and liquids, wine and ale, shall have marks put thereon,[195] lest by guile they can be falsified.

It is established that woollen cloths, wherever they be made, be made of the same width, to wit, of two ells within the lists,[196] and of the same good quality in the middle and at the sides. Also the ell shall be the same in the whole realm and of the same length, and the ell shall be of iron.

It is forbidden to all merchants throughout the whole of the realm that any merchant set in front of his shop red or black cloths or shields or any other thing, whereby the buyers' eyes are often deceived in the choice of good cloth.

It is also forbidden that any dye for sale, save black only, be made anywhere in the realm, except in cities or chief boroughs.

It is also established that in every city or borough four or six lawful men of the same town, according to the size of the town, together with the sheriff,[197] or with the reeves of the city or borough, if the same be not in the hand of the sheriff, be assigned to keep the assize in this form: that they see and be sure that all things are sold and bought by the same measure, and that all measures are of the same size according to the diversity of wares. And if they find any who shall be confessed or convicted of having sold by other than the established measure, his body shall be taken and sent to prison, and all his chattels shall be seized into the hand of the lord the King, nor shall he be delivered save by the lord the King or his chief justice. Touching the keepers themselves it is established that if they perform this keeping so negligently that they be convicted by others than themselves before the justices of the lord the King of transgressing any written assize either of measures or of the width of cloths, the keepers shall remain at the mercy of the lord the King touching their chattels.

It is commanded also that after the feast of the Purification of St. Mary no man in any county sell anything save by the ordained measure, which shall be [everywhere] of the same size; nor after the fair of mid-Lent at Stamford sell any cloth of smaller width than two ells within the lists.

[195] "Inclaventur in eis claves."

[196] The selvages.

2. Grant To the Lord of a Manor of the Assize of Bread and Ale and Other Liberties [Inquisitions ad quod damnum, 63, 16], 1307.

Nottingham.—Inquisition taken at Nottingham before William de Chelardeston, sheriff of Nottingham, on Sunday, a fortnight after Easter in the 35th year of the reign of King Edward, whether the lord the King, without doing prejudice or injury to any man, can grant to his beloved and trusty Peter Pycot that he and his heirs may have for ever in his manor of Ratcliffe upon Soar, in the county of Nottingham, view of frankpledge of his men and tenants of the same manor and whatever pertains to such view, and amends of the assize of bread and ale broken by the same men and tenants, and a pillory and a tumbrel and "infangenethef"[198] and gallows for the execution of judgment, for a fixed rent thereof according to the true value of the same liberties, to be rendered each year by the hands of the sheriff of that county for the time being to the lord the King and his heirs at their Exchequer, or not, and if prejudice or injury should be done to any man by the grant aforesaid, then to whom and in what manner and how, and how much the liberties aforesaid to be possessed in the same manor can be worth yearly according to the true value of the same, by the oath of Robert Pouterel of Thrumpton.[199] … Who say upon their oath that the lord the King, without doing prejudice or injury to any man, can grant to the aforesaid Peter Pycot that he and his heirs may have for ever in his manor of Ratcliffe upon Soar view of frankpledge.[200] … They say further that all the liberties aforesaid in the said manor are worth 2s. a year according to the true value thereof. In witness whereof the aforesaid jurors have set their seals to this inquisition. Given at Nottingham the day and year abovesaid.

[197] Reading simul cum vicecomite for similiter in vicecomitatu.

[198] The right to take and judge thieves within the manorial precincts.

[199] And eleven others named.

[200] And the other liberties specified above. For an explanation of view of frankpledge, see note to Section IV., No. 5 above.

3. An Offence Against the Assize of Bread [Guildhall, Letter-Book D, f. 189], 1316.[201]

On the Saturday next before the Feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross,[202] in the 9th year of the reign of King Edward, son of King Edward, Richard de Lughteburghe was attached to make answer as to a certain false wastel[203] loaf of his. And the same Richard said that he was not a baker, and that he did not have that wastel bread baked; but that, as a regrator, he bought it of a certain baker who lives in Southwark. And upon this he was charged by the Mayor and Aldermen with being in partnership with the baker aforesaid, in baking such bread, and sharing with him in the gain thereby, or loss, if such should happen: whereupon, being asked how he would acquit himself thereof, he said that he was not the partner of the said baker, nor had he any share with him; and he put himself upon the country as to the same. Therefore the country was summoned for the Tuesday next ensuing, and he was delivered into the custody of the sheriffs, etc.

On which day the said Richard came, and the jury came by John de Estwode and others in the panel named. Which jurors said upon their oath, that the aforesaid Richard is a partner of the said baker for gain in baking the bread aforesaid. Therefore it was adjudged that he should have the punishment of the hurdle. And he was so punished now for the first time, because his loaf was wanting to the amount of 2s. 9d. in the proper weight of half a mark for the halfpenny wastel loaf.

Also Alan de Lyndeseye, baker, was sentenced to the pillory, because he had been convicted of baking pain demaign that was found to be of bad dough within, and good dough without. And because such falsity redounds much to the deception of the people who buy such bread, he was committed for punishment, etc.