English Economic History: Select Documents. Various
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tumult, carrying lies and worthless talk from district to district whereby the peace of the lord the King could be speedily broken and the people disquieted and disturbed; and among other dangerous words, to wit, after the proclamation of the peace of the lord the King made the day and year aforesaid, the assigns[151] of the lord the King being in the town and sitting, he said in a tavern in Bridge Street, Cambridge, where many were assembled to listen to his news and worthless talk, that the stewards of the lord the King, the justices and many other officers and ministers of the King were more worthy to be drawn and hanged and to suffer other lawful pains and torments, than John Balle, chaplain, a traitor and felon lawfully convicted; for he said that he was condemned to death falsely, unjustly and for envy by the said ministers with the King's assent, because he was a true and good man, prophesying things useful to the commons of the realm and telling of wrongs and oppressions done to the people by the King and the ministers aforesaid; and his death shall not go unpunished but within a short space he would well reward both the King and his officers and ministers aforesaid; which sayings and threats redound to the prejudice of the crown of the lord the King and the contempt and manifest disquiet of the people. And hereupon the aforesaid John Shirle was brought forthwith by the sheriff before the aforesaid assigns in Cambridge castle, and was charged touching the premises and diligently examined as well touching his conversation as touching his tarrying and his estate, and the same being acknowledged by him before the aforesaid assigns, his evil behaviour and condition is plainly manifest and clear. And hereupon trustworthy witnesses at that time in his presence, when the aforesaid lies, evil words, threats and worthless talk were spoken by him, were asked for, and they being sworn to speak the truth in this behalf, testify that all the aforesaid words imputed to him were truly spoken by him; and he, again examined, did not deny the premises imputed to him. Therefore by the discretion of the said assigns he was hanged; and order was made to the escheator to enquire diligently of his lands and tenements, goods and chattels, and to make due execution thereof for the lord the King.
[149] July 20.
[150] And eleven others.
[151] i.e. The justices assigned.
SECTION V
TOWNS AND GILDS
1. Payments made to the crown by gilds in the twelfth century, 1179–80—2. Charter of liberties to the borough of Tewkesbury, 1314—3. Charter of liberties to the borough of Gloucester, 1227—4. Dispute between towns touching the payment of toll, 1222—5. Dispute with a lord touching a gild merchant, 1223–4—6. The affiliation of boroughs, 1227—7. Bondman received in a borough, 1237–8—8. An intermunicipal agreement in respect of toll, 1239—9. Enforcement of charter granting freedom from toll, 1416—10. Licence for an alien to be of the gild merchant of London, 1252—11. Dispute between a gild merchant and an abbot, 1304—12. Complaints of the men of Leicester against the lord, 1322—13. Grant of pavage to the lord of a town, 1328—14. Misappropriation of the tolls levied for pavage, 1336—15. Ordinances of the White Tawyers of London, 1346—16. Dispute between Masters and Journeymen, 1396—17. Ordinances of the Dyers of Bristol, 1407—18. Incorporation of the Haberdashers of London, 1448—19. Indenture of Apprenticeship, 1459—20. A runaway apprentice, c. 1425—21. Incorporation of a gild for religious and charitable uses, 1447.
The origin and early development of towns, the emergence of gild merchant and craft gild, the mutual relationship of the two types of gild, and the part played by each in the evolution of municipal self-government, present problems to which there is no simple solution. The undoubtedly military object of many of the Saxon boroughs fails to explain their economic development; while the possession of a market did not lead of necessity to self-government. Often, indeed, there is little economic difference between a large manor and a small town; the towns pursued agriculture, and the manors engaged in industry. None the less the early borough, with its court co-ordinate with the hundred court, its special peace, and its market, stands out at the time of the Conquest as a distinct variety of communitas, and easily became a centre of specialised industry and privileged association. Constitutional and economic growth proceed side by side; a measure of liberty encourages commercial progress, and the profits of trade purchase a larger measure of liberty.
In this section an attempt has been made to illustrate the gradual expansion of the economic life of the town from the twelfth century onwards. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries witnessed a great and growing activity; craft gilds and gilds merchant were arising everywhere, and whether licensed or unlicensed, were paying considerable sums to the crown for privileges bought or usurped, (No. 1). The more important boroughs were securing charters from their lords (Nos. 2 and 3), while smaller towns were struggling to win economic freedom, that is to say, local monopoly, against serious obstacles (No. 5). The fate of a town depended much on the lord; the king's boroughs were more favoured than those of an earl or lesser baron, while the latter fared better than towns in the hands of a prelate (Nos. 11 and 12). The exaction of tolls and the claim to exemption from tolls, which prove the existence of considerable intermunicipal trade, were a common cause of litigation. The grant of incompatible privileges to rival communities was a source of profit to the mediæval monarchy; the crown secured payment in hand for the charters, and reaped the benefit of the inevitable dispute that followed (Nos. 4 and 8). The growth of intercourse is further shown by that curious feature of early borough development, the affiliation of distinct groups of towns (No. 6). Nos. 7 and 10 illustrate the coveted privileges of the freedom of a city or borough, and No. 9 the machinery by which a citizen protected himself if his liberty were infringed in another town. The character of tolls imposed by a town for municipal purposes and the possibility of corrupt collectors are shown in Nos. 13 and 14. The specialisation of industry is naturally followed by a differentiation of function, a process which develops normally in the fourteenth century and attains a certain rigidity in the fifteenth. Crafts begin to close their ranks, to lay down elaborate rules of membership, of the conduct of business and the methods of manufacture, to secure incorporation, and to strengthen their hands by establishing disciplinary precedents in relation to the journeymen and apprentices. The competition of the unskilled outsider is suppressed and apprenticeship insisted on (Nos. 15 and 17), the journeyman is restrained (No. 16), and the crafts establish a wide control over the conditions of labour (No. 18). No. 19 is a characteristic indenture of apprenticeship; No. 20 illustrates the tendency to invoke the central authority, which grows in force during the fifteenth century and culminates in the direct control exercised by the Chancellor over gild ordinances in the sixteenth century; while No. 21 is an example of the social religious gild, which was one of the mediæval methods of anticipating the poor law.
AUTHORITIES
The principal modern writers dealing with the subject of this section are:—Madox, Firma Burgi; Maitland, Township and Burgh; Merewether & Stephens, History of the Boroughs; Ballard, British Borough Charters; Bateson, Borough Customs(Selden Society); Gross, The Gild Merchant; Gross, The Affiliation of Boroughs (Antiquary, XII.); Drinkwater, Merchant Gild of Shrewsbury(Salop Archæol. Transactions, N.S. II.); Unwin, The Gilds and Companies of London; Unwin, Industrial Organisation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; Green, Town Life in the Fifteenth Century; Toulmin Smith, English Gilds (Early English Text Society); Davies, History of Southampton; Hibbert, Influence and Development of English Gilds; Hudson, Leet Jurisdiction in the City of Norwich; Leonard, Early History of English Poor Law Relief; Denton, England in the Fifteenth Century.
For contemporary records the student may be referred to the following:—Riley, Memorials of London and London Life; Riley, Liber Albus; Sharpe, Calendars of Letter Books; Stevenson, Records of the Borough of Nottingham; Bateson, Records of the Borough of Leicester;