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
Craft guilds grew up in the towns, such as the tanners at Oxford, which
later merged with the shoemakers into a cordwainers' guild. There were
weavers' guilds in several towns, including London, which were given
royal sanction and protection for annual payments (twelve pounds of
silver for London). They paid an annual tribute and were given a
monopoly of weaving cloth within a radius of several miles. Guild rules
covered attendance of the members at church services, the promotion of
pilgrimages, celebration of masses for the dead, common meals, relief of
poor brethren and sisters, the hours of labor, the process of
manufacture, the wages of workmen, and technical education. King Henry
standardized the yard as the length of his own arm.
Trades and crafts, each of which had to be licensed, grouped together
by specialty in the town. Cloth makers, dyers, tanners, and fullers were
near an accessible supply of running water, upon which their trade
depended. Streets were often named by the trade located there, such as
Butcher Row, Pot Row, Cordwainer Row, Ironmonger Row, Wheeler Row, and
Fish Row. Hirers of labor and sellers of wheat, hay, livestock, dairy
products, apples and wine, meat, poultry, fish and pies, timber and
cloth all had a distinct location. Some young men were apprenticed to
craftsmen to assist them and learn their craft.
London had at least twenty wards, each governed by its own alderman.
Most of them were named after people. London was ruled by sixteen
families linked by business and marriage ties. These businesses supplied
luxury goods to the rich and included the goldsmiths [sold cups, dishes,
girdles, mirrors, purses knives, and metal wine containers with handle
and spout], vintners [wine merchants], mercers [sold textiles,
haberdashery, combs, mirrors, knives, toys, spices, ointments, and
potions], drapers, and pepperers, which later merged with the spicers to
become the "grocers", skinners, tanners, shoemakers, woolmen, weavers,
fishmongers, armorers, and swordsmiths. There were bakehouses at which
one could leave raw joints of meat to be cooked and picked up later.
These businesses had in common four fears: royal interference, foreign
competition, displacement by new crafts, and violence by the poor and
escaped villeins who found their way to the city. When a non-freeholder
stayed in London he had to find for frankpledge, three sureties for good
behavior. Failure to do so was a felony and the ward would eject him to
avoid the charge of harboring him with its heavy fine. The arrival of
ships with cargoes from continental ports and their departure with
English exports was the regular waterside life below London Bridge. Many
foreign merchants lived in London. Imports included timber, hemp, fish,
and furs. There was a fraternal organization of citizens who had
possessed their own lands with sac and soke and other customs in the
days of King Edward. There were public bathhouses, but they were
disreputable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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