Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) EditionReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) Edition
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
Some prices in London were: large wooden bedstead 18s., a small
bedstead 2s., a large chest for household items 2s., feather beds 2-3s.,
a table 1s., a chair 4-6d., cloth gown lined with fur 13- 20s., plain
coats and overcoats 2-8s., caps 2-8d., a pair of pen- cases with inkhorn
4d., a skin of parchment 1d., 24 sheets of paper 6d, a carcass of beef
15s., a pig 4s., a swan 5s., and a pheasant 4s. There was a problem with
malefactors committing offenses in London and avoiding its jurisdiction
by escaping to Southwark across the Thames. So Southwark was given a
royal charter which put it under the jurisdiction of London for peace
and order matters and allowed London to appoint its tax collector.
London forbade games being played because they had replaced practice in
archery, which was necessary for defense.
A royal inquiry into the state of the currency indicated much
falsification and coin-clipping by the Jews and others. About 280 Jews
and many Englishmen were found guilty and hanged. The rest of the Jews,
about 16,000, were expelled in 1290. This was popular with the public
because of the abuses of usury. There had been outbreaks of violence
directed at the Jews since about 1140. The king used Italian bankers
instead because he thought them more equitable in their dealings. The
lepers were driven out of London in 1276. Exports and imports were no
longer a tiny margin in an economy just above the subsistence level.
Exports were primarily raw wool and cloth, but also grain, butter, eggs,
herring, hides, leather goods such as bottles and boots, embroideries,
metalware, horseshoes, daggers, tin, coal, and lead. Imported were wine,
silk, timber, furs, rubies, emeralds, fruits, raisins, currents, pepper,
ginger, cloves, rice, cordovan leather, pitch, hemp, spars, fine iron,
short rods of steel, bow-staves of yew, tar, oil, salt, cotton (for
candlewicks), and alum (makes dyes hold). Ships which transported them
had one or two masts upon which sails could be furled, the recently
invented rudder, and a carrying capacity of up to 200 tuns [about one
ton]. Many duties of sheriffs and coroners were transferred to county
landholders by commissions. In coastal counties, there were such
commissions for supervising coastal defense and maintaining the beacons.
Each maritime county maintained a coast guard, which was under the
command of a knight. Ports had well-maintained harbors, quays, and
streets. By 1306 there was an office of admiral of the fleet of the
ships of the southern ports.
Women could inherit land in certain circumstances. Some tenants holding
land in chief of the king were women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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