The wealth and importance of this ancient emporium of commerce, became so great in the reign of Alexander II., as to excite the admiration of contemporary authors, one of whom calls it a “second Alexandria;” and eulogizes the inhabitants for the extent of their donations to religious houses. “But we have,” says Macpherson, in his Annals of Commerce, “better authority than the voice of panegyric, for the prosperity of Berwick; as we find the customs of it assigned by King Alexander to a merchant of Gascoigne for 2,197_l._ 8s. Sterling--a sum equal to 32,961 bolls of wheat, at the usual price of 16 pennies.”[12] In the years 1283 and 1284, Robert Durham the Mayor, together with Simon Martel, and other good men of Berwick, enacted the _Statute of the Gilt_. “By c. 20. None but gild-brothers were permitted to buy hides, wool, or wool-fells, in order to sell them again, or cut cloth, except foreign merchants. “C. 22. 37. and 44. Herrings and other fish, corn, beans, peas, salt, and coals,[13] were ordered to be sold ‘_at the bray_,’ along side the vessel bringing them, and no where else; and they were not to be carried on shore when the sun was down. Any burgess who was present at a purchase of herrings, might claim a portion of them for his own consumption, at the original cost. “C. 27. Brokers were elected by the community of the town, and their names registered. They paid annually a tun (_dolium_) of wine for their license;”--a proof that their business must have been lucrative. “C. 28. No regrator was allowed to buy fish, hay, oats, cheese, butter, or other articles brought into the town for sale, till the bell rung. “The government of the town was declared to be by a mayor, four provosts (_præpositis_), and twenty-four councillors,” &c. In 1283, when Edward was preparing for his invasion of Wales, he commissioned one John Bishop, a burgess of Lynne, to purchase merchandise (_mercimonia_) for him in Scotland. This is rather a singular instance of the superiority of the Scots market in those days.[14] The other cities in Scotland, though inferior to Berwick, were not without their proportion of trade. About the same time, the sheriffs of Cumberland and Lancaster were ordered to send people to purchase fish on the west coast of Scotland, and convey them to the _depôt_ at Chester; and one Adam de Fulcham was commissioned to furnish 100 barrels of sturgeons, of 500 weight each, 5000 salt fish, also dried fish. The fish of Aberdeen were so well cured, that they were exported to the principal fishing port of Yarmouth.