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.