Then follows the regulation of various trades. The baker comes first, subject to so many rules and prohibitions that one is surprised to find any one willing to practise the mystery. Millers, brewers, and sellers of ale, are also taken under paternal surveillance. Usury is strictly forbidden—the frequency of the prohibition shows how powerless the law was to prevent it. The companies had Hall Motes, or meetings of their members, twice a year, at which their ordinances were to be read. No one was to take more than two or three apprentices, and then for a term of at least seven years. No one was to be wandering on the streets after curfew, unless he was a man of repute or his servant. No one was to carry arms in the City. Every Alderman was to keep a good watch on his Ward. None but free men were to be admitted to the freedom of the City. Wager of battle does not lie between persons free of the City, unless they consented thereto. In addition to the Courts already mentioned, there were the Courts of the Sokes; that is to say, of those places which were outside the jurisdiction of the City; such were the places called afterwards Liberties. The Iter, or Eyre, was a holding by the Justices Itinerant of the Pleas of the Crown, at which the citizens received, and had to answer a series of questions on, their Privileges, Customs, Liberties, and Rights. It was a Court which could be held in a day or two, without giving much trouble, or it was a Court which could be vexatious and oppressive to the highest degree. John Carpenter is as full and explicit on the subject of the Iter as can be desired. He contemplated that it would be got through in a day or two. But it was a solemn and important function. The Justices sat in the Great Hall of the Tower; on the day appointed, all the laymen of the City were bound to meet at All Hallows at Barking, properly arrayed—“all the laymen”—does this mean the whole body of merchants, traders, and craftsmen? That might mean a company of 40,000 men! During the holding of the Pleas, no shop, seld, cellar, or solar was to be kept open, and nothing was to be sold. Evidently, therefore, the Iter was not expected to take long:— “Also, upon the same day, by sanction of the Common Council of the City, there should be sent from Berkyngecherche six or more of the more serious, honourable, and discreet Barons of the City; who are to enter the Tower for the purpose of saluting and welcoming his lordship the King, his Council, and his Justiciars, on behalf of the City; begging of them that, if it so please his lordship the King, they may safely appear before them in the said Tower, saving all their liberties and customs unto the Mayor and all other citizens. For his lordship the King and all his predecessors, Kings of England, and their Justiciars, have always preserved unto all the citizens their liberties safe and unimpaired.