English Economic History: Select Documents. Various
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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]