Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years: 600 - 1600: King Aethelbert - Queen ElizabethReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: The First Thousand Years: 600 - 1600: King Aethelbert - Queen Elizabeth
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
As of 1336, importing foreign cloth or fur, except for use by the
King's family, was prohibited, as was the export of unwoven
wool. Later, this was relaxed and a customs tax of 33% was
imposed on wool exported. Foreign cloth-workers may come to live
in the nation, be granted franchises, and shall be in the King's
protection. No cloth may be exported until it is fulled.
There was a recoinage due to debasement of the old coinage. This
increased the number of coins in circulation. The price of wheat
went from about 7s. in 1270 to about 5s. per quarter in 1280.
Also the price of an ox went from 14s. to 10s. >From 1280 to
1290, there was runaway inflation.
As before, inadequate care and ignorance of nutrition caused many
infant deaths. Accidents and disease were so prevalent that
death was always near and life insecure. Many women died in
childbirth.
In the 1300s, there were extremes of fashion in men's and women's
clothing including tight garments, pendant sleeves down to the
ground, coats so short they didn't reach the hips or so long
they reached the heels, hoods so small they couldn't cover the
head, and shoes with long curved peaks like claws at the toes.
Both men and women wore belts low on the hips. The skirt of a
lady's tunic was fuller and the bodice more closely fitted than
before. Her hair was usually elaborately done up, e.g. with long
curls or curled braids on either side of the face. A jeweled
circlet was often worn around her head. Ladies wore on their
arms or belts, cloth handbags, which usually contained
toiletries, such as combs made of ivory, horn, bone, or wood,
and perhaps a little book of devotions. A man wore a knife and a
bag on his belt. Some women painted their faces and/or colored
their hair. There were hand-held glass mirrors. Some people kept
dogs purely as pets.
Under Edward II, all citizens of London had to be enrolled in the
trade guild of their craft.
The commons became a permanent and distinct body with an elected
spokesman or speaker and its own clerk in Edward III's reign.
Also, sheriffs them dealt directly with the King instead of
through an earl.
To support a war with France, Edward III permanently instituted
the staple system, by which wool exports were taxed through his
officials only at the designated staple port. These officials
included collectors, controllers, searchers, surveyors, clerks,
weighers, and crane-keepers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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