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
9. Persons who entice away journeymen glovers to make gloves in
their own houses shall be brought before the mayor and aldermen.
10. Any one of the trade who refuses to obey these regulations
shall be brought before the mayor and aldermen.
Cordwainers [workers in soft cordovan leather from Spain,
especially shoes] of good repute petitioned the city of London
in 1375 for ordinances on their trade as follows:
'To the mayor and aldermen of the city of London pray the good
folks of the trade of cordwainers of the same city, that it may
please you to grant unto them the articles that follow, for the
profit of the common people; that so, what is good and right may
be done unto all manner of folks, for saving the honor of the
city and lawfully governing the said trade.
In the first place - that if any one of the trade shall sell to
any person shoes of bazen [sheep-skin tanned in oak or
larch-bark] as being cordwain, or of calf- leather for
ox-leather, in deceit of the common people, and to the scandal of
the trade, he shall pay to the Chamber of the Guildhall, the
first time that he shall be convicted thereof, forty pence; the
second time, 7s. half a mark; and the third time the same, and
further, at the discretion of the mayor and aldermen.
Also - that no one of the trade shall keep house within the
franchise if he be not free [invested with the rights or
privileges] of the city and one knowing his trade, and that no
one shall be admitted to the freedom without the presence of the
wardens of the trade bearing witness to his standing, on the pain
aforesaid.
Also - if any one of the trade shall be found offending touching
the trade, or rebellious against the wardens thereof, such
person shall not make complaint to any one of another trade, by
reason of the discord or dissension that may have arisen between
them; but he shall be ruled by the good folks of his own trade.
And if he shall differ from them as acting against right, then
let the offense be adjudged upon before the mayor and aldermen;
and if he be found rebellious against the ordinance, let him pay
to the Chamber the sum above mentioned.
Also - that no one of the trade shall entice or purloin the
servant of another from the service of his master by paying him
more than is ordained by the trade, on the pain aforesaid.
Also - that no one shall carry out of his house any wares
connected with his trade for sale in market or elsewhere except
only at a certain place situated between Soperesland and the
Conduit; and that at a certain time of the day, that is to say,
between prime [the first hour of the day] and noon. And that no
shoes shall exceed the measure of seven inches, so that the
wares may be surveyed by the good folks of the trade, because of
the deceit upon the common people that might ensue and the
scandal of the trade, on the pain aforesaid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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