English Economic History: Select Documents
PART I: 1000-1485
SECTION I
THE EARLY ENGLISH MANOR AND BOROUGH
1. Rights and Duties of All Persons (_Rectitudines singularum personarum_), _c._ 1000 5
2. The form of the Domesday Inquest, 1086 9
3. The borough of Dover, 1086 10
4. The borough of Norwich, 1086 11
5. The borough of Wallingford, 1086 13
6. The customs of Berkshire, 1086 15
7. Land of the Church of Worcester, 1086 15
8. The manor of Rockland, 1086 16
9. The manor of Halesowen, 1086 16
10. The manor of Havering, 1086 17
SECTION II
THE FEUDAL STRUCTURE
1. Frankalmoin, _temp._ Henry II 22
2. Knight Service, 1308 23
3. Grand Serjeanty, 1319 24
4. Petty Serjeanty, 1329 25
5. An action on the feudal incidents due from lands held by petty serjeanty, 1239-40 25
6. Free socage, 1342 26
7. Commutation of a serjeanty for knight service, 1254 27
8. Commutation of service for rent, 1269 27
9. Subinfeudation, 1278 28
10. Licence for the widow of a tenant in chief to marry, 1316 29
11. Marriage of a widow without licence, 1338 30
12. Alienation of land by a tenant in chief without licence, 1273 30
13. Wardship and marriage, 1179-80 30
14. Grant of an heir's marriage, 1320 31
15. Wardship, 1337 31
16. Collection of a carucage, 1198 32
17. An acquittance of the collectors of scutage of a sum of £10 levied by them and repaid, 1319 33
18. Payment of fines in lieu of knight service, 1303 34
19. The assessment of a tallage, 1314 35
20. A writ _Precipe_, _c._ 1200 36
21. Articles of enquiry touching rights and liberties and the state of the realm, 1274 36
22. Wreck of sea, 1337 40
SECTION III
THE JEWS
1. Charter of liberties to the Jews, 1201 44
2. Ordinances of 1253 45
3. Expulsion of a Jew, 1253 46
4. Punishment for non-residence in a Jewry, 1270 47
5. Grant of a Jew, 1271 47
6. Ordinances of 1271 48
7. Removal of Jewish communities from certain towns to others, 1275 50
8. Disposition of debts due to Jews after their expulsion, 1290 50
SECTION IV
THE MANOR
1. Extent of the manor of Havering, 1306-7 56
2. Extracts from the Court Rolls of the manor of Bradford, 1349-58 65
3. Deed illustrating the distribution of strips, 1397 76
4. Regulation of the common fields of Wimeswould, _c._ 1425 76
5. Lease of a manor to the tenants, 1279 79
6. Grant of a manor to the customary tenants at fee farm, _ante_ 1272 81
7. Lease of manorial holdings, 1332 82
8. An agreement between lord and tenants, 1386 84
9. Complaints against a reeve, 1278 84
10. An eviction from copyhold land, _temp._ Henry IV.-Henry VI 85
11. Statute of Merton, 1235-6 87
12. An enclosure allowed, 1236-7 88
13. An enclosure disallowed, 1236-7 89
14. A villein on ancient demesne dismissed to his lord's court, 1224 89
15. Claim to be on ancient demesne defeated, 1237-8 90
16. The little writ of right, 1390 91
17. Villeinage established, 1225 92
18. Freedom and freehold established, 1236-7 93
19. A villein pleads villeinage on one occasion and denies it on another, 1220 93
20. An assize allowed to a villein, 1225 95
21. A freeman holding in villeinage, 1228 96
22. Land held by charter recovered from the lord, 1227 97
23. The manumission of a villein, 1334 97
24. Grant of a bondman, 1358 98
25. Imprisonment of a gentleman claimed as a bondman, 1447 98
26. Claim to a villein, _temp._ Henry IV-Henry VI 100
27. The effect of the Black Death, 1350 102
28. Accounts of the Iron Works of South Frith before and after the Black Death, 1345-50 103
29. The Peasants' Revolt, 1381 105
SECTION V
TOWNS AND GILDS
1. Payments made to the Crown by gilds in the twelfth century, 1179-80 114
2. Charter of liberties to the borough of Tewkesbury, 1314 116
3. Charter of liberties to the borough of Gloucester, 1227 119
4. Dispute between towns touching the payment of toll, 1222 121
5. Dispute with a lord touching a gild merchant, 1223-4 123
6. The affiliation of boroughs, 1227 124
7. Bondman received in a borough, 1237-8 125
8. An inter-municipal agreement in respect of toll, 1239 126
9. Enforcement of charter granting freedom from toll, 1416 126
10. Licence for an alien to be of the Gild Merchant of London, 1252 127
11. Dispute between a gild merchant and an abbot, 1304 128
12. Complaints of the men of Leicester against the lord, 1322 131
13. Grant of pavage to the lord of a town, 1328 133
14. Misappropriation of the tolls levied for pavage, 1336 135
15. Ordinances of the White Tawyers of London, 1346 136
16. Dispute between Masters and Journeymen, 1396 138
17. Ordinances of the Dyers of Bristol, 1407 141
18. Incorporation of the Haberdashers of London, 1448 144
19. Indenture of Apprenticeship, 1459 147
20. A runaway apprentice, c. 1425 148
21. Incorporation of a gild for religious and charitable uses, 1447 148
SECTION VI
THE REGULATION OF TRADE, INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE
1. Assize of Measures, 1197 154
2. Grant to the lord of a manor of the assize of bread and ale and other liberties, 1307 155
3. An offence against the assize of bread, 1316 156
4. Inquisition touching a proposed market and fair, 1252 157
5. Grant of a fair at St. Ives to the abbot of Ramsey, 1202 158
6. Grant of a market at St. Ives to the abbot of Ramsey, 1293 158
7. Proceedings in the court at the fair of St. Ives, 1288 159
8. The Statute of Winchester, 1285 160
9. The recovery of debt on a recognisance, 1293 161
10. Procedure at a fair pursuant to the Statute for Merchants, 1287 162
11. The aulnage of cloth, 1291 163
12. The Ordinance of Labourers, 1349 164
13. Presentments made before the Justices of Labourers, 1351 167
14. Excessive prices charged by craftsmen, 1354 169
15. Fines levied for excessive wages, 1351 169
16. Writ to enforce payment of excess of wages to the collectors of a subsidy, 1350 170
17. Application of fines for excessive wages to a subsidy, 1351-2 171
18. Labour Legislation: the Statute of 12 Richard II, 1388 171
19. Labour Legislation: a Bill in Parliament, 23 Henry VI, 1444-5 176
20. Organisation of the Staple, 1313 178
21. Arguments for the establishment of home staple towns, 1319 180
22. Ordinances of the Staple, 1326 181
23. The election of the mayor and constables of a Staple town, 1358 184
24. Royal letters patent over-ruled by the custom of the Staple, _c._ 1436 185
25. Prohibition of export of materials for making cloth, 1326 186
26. Commercial policy, _temp._ Edward IV 187
27. The perils of foreign travel, 1315 188
28. Grant of letters of marque and reprisals, 1447 190
29. Grant of liberties to the merchants of Douai, 1260 192
30. Aliens at a fair, 1270 193
31. Confirmation of liberties to the merchants of Almain, 1280 194
32. Alien weavers in London, 1362 195
33. The hosting of aliens, 1442 197
34. An offence against Stat. 18 Henry VI for the hosting of aliens, 1440 198
35. Imprisonment of an alien craftsman, _c._ 1440 199
36. Petition against usury, 1376 200
37. Action upon usury, _c._ 1480 201
SECTION VII
TAXATION, CUSTOMS AND CURRENCY
1. Form of the taxation of a fifteenth and tenth, 1336 204
2. Disposition of a subsidy of tonnage and poundage, 1382 206
3. The king's prise of wines, 1320 206
4. The custom on wool, 1275 207
5. The custom on wine, 1302 208
6. The custom on general imports, 1303 211
7. Administration of the search for money exported, 1303 216
8. Provisions for the currency, 1335 217
9. Opinions on the state of English money, 1381-2 220