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
The making and selling of goods diverged e.g. as the cloth
merchant severed from the tailor and the leather merchant
severed from the butcher. These craftsmen formed themselves into
guilds. They sought charters to require all craftsmen to belong
to the guild of their craft, to have legal control of the craft
work, and be able to expel any craftsman for disobedience. These
guilds determined the wages and working conditions of the
craftsmen and petitioned the borough authorities for ordinances
restraining trade, for instance by controlling the admission of
outsiders to the craft, preventing foreigners from selling in the
town except at fairs, limiting purchases of raw materials to
suppliers within the town, forbidding night work, restricting
the number of apprentices to each master craftsmen, and
requiring a minimum number of years for apprenticeships. In
return, these guilds assured quality control. In some boroughs,
they did work for the town, such as maintaining certain
defensive towers or walls of the town near their respective
wards. In some boroughs, fines for infractions of these
regulations were split between the guild and the government.
This jurisdiction was sought from the towns governments, which
were controlled by the merchant guilds, with great difficulty.
In London, this power was broken in 1261 by the craftsmen
forcing their way into the town-mote. By this brute show of
strength, they set aside the opinion of the magnates and selected
their own candidate to be mayor.
The citizens of London had a common seal for the city. London
merchants traveled throughout the nation with goods to sell
exempt from tolls. Most of the London aldermen were woolmongers,
vintners, skinners, and grocers by turns or carried on all these
branches of commerce at once. There are three inns in London.
Care- giving hospitals such as "Bethleham Hospital" were
established in London. Only tiles were used for roofing in
London, because wood shingles were fire hazards and fires in
London had been frequent. Some areas near London are disclaimed
by the King to be royal forest land, so all citizens could hunt
there and till their land there without interference by the
royal foresters.
A gold penny was minted, which was worth 2s. of silver. Jews were
allowed to make loans with interest up to 2d. a week for 20s.
lent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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