or paid therefor to the use of us or our heirs, to have and to hold to the same alderman and wardens and brethren and sisters of the fraternity or gild abovesaid and their successors for the maintenance of the said two chaplains and for the relief of the poor and feeble aforesaid, as is said above, for ever; the Statute published touching lands and tenements not to be put in Mortmain, or any other statute or ordinance published or made to the contrary, notwithstanding; provided that it be found by inquisitions duly to be taken thereon and lawfully returned into the Chancery of us and our heirs, that it can be done without damage or prejudice to us or our heirs or others whomsoever. In witness whereof, etc. Witness the King at Bury St. Edmunds, 20 February.
By writ of privy seal, and of the date aforesaid by authority of Parliament, and for 20 marks paid in the hanaper.
SECTION VI
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.
