FOOD SUPPLIES AND REGULATIONS
ASSISE OF WINE: DISPUTED. A.D. 1256.
In the same year, Henry de Ba (Bath) Justiciar, came to the Guildhall of London, bringing to the Mayor and Sheriffs a writ from his lordship the King; who thereupon summoned before him all the vintners of the City. The Justiciar wishing to amerce all these for breach of the assise of wine, the citizens made answer, that the vintners who had broken the assise ought, and are wont, solely to be amerced at the Common Pleas of the Crown, and not before a Justiciar at the Tower. To whom the Justiciar made answer ... that this will not satisfy his lordship the King, for that it does not seem just or right that they may break the assise for seven years or more with impunity, and only once be amerced for so many offences.
To which reply was made, that his lordship the King is both wont to and may whenever he pleases, upon election by the citizens, appoint two wardens to keep that assise, in manner as heretofore; ... that the same wardens, too, when any one is convicted of breach of the assise, ought to sell the wine found in the tun, in reference to which the breach has been committed, and to produce the money at the Pleas of the Crown holden before the Justiciars, the transgressor nevertheless being there also amerced.
METHODS OF WEIGHING
A.D. 1256
It has usually been the custom, when wares which have to be sold by balance, are weighed, for the draught of the balance to incline on the wares side, the case of gold and silver excepted which are always weighed with the pin standing midway, and inclining neither towards the weight nor towards the gold or silver; and consequently that the weigher who weighs in the City by the balance of his lordship the King, is able, by reason of such draught, to give a greater weight to one person than to another, through favour, maybe, or through fear, or through a bribe passing between them, or perhaps inadvertence.
It was therefore provided and enacted on the Saturday after the Feast of St. Nicholas (6 December) in the one and fortieth year of the reign of King Henry, son of King John, that all wares which have to be weighed by the King’s balances in the City, shall be weighed like gold and silver, the draught in no degree inclining towards the wares; and that in lieu of such draught, the vendor ought to give to the buyer four pounds in every hundred.
A.D. 1257.
In this year there was a failure of the crops; upon which failure a famine ensued, to such a degree that the people from the villages resorted to the City for food; and there upon the famine waxing still greater, many thousand persons perished; many thousands more too would have died of hunger, had not corn just then arrived from Almaine. [The German States.]
KING’S PRISAGE. A.D. 1257
After this, on the Nones (5) of August an edict was published in the City, that no one of the King’s household, nor any other person should take anything in the City, except at the will of the vendors; saving however unto his lordship the King his rightful prisage of wine, that is to say from every ship that owes full custom two tuns of wine at the price of forty shillings. And further that if anyone should presume to contravene the same and be convicted thereof, he should be immediately imprisoned. After this no one of the King’s officers, nor yet any of their people, took anything without soon after paying the vendor for the same: this however lasted for a short time only.
A.D. 1262
In this year ... the Mayor and citizens of London shewed unto Sir Philip Basset, Justiciar of England, and others of the Council of his lordship the King at Westminster, that the Constable of the Tower in contravention of their franchises, wished to arrest and seize vessels in the Thames before the Tower, and take prisage of corn and other things, before they had reached the wharf; further saying, that just then he had caused a vessel belonging to Thomas de Basings, laden with wheat, to be stopped before the Tower, and was for taking one hundred quarters therefrom, at a price by the quarter, two pence less than it would have sold for when brought ashore. To which the Constable made answer, that this he was quite at liberty to do, in behalf of his lordship the King; whereupon the citizens replied that attachments on the Thames pertain solely to the Sheriffs of London, seeing that the whole water of Thames belongs to the City from shore to shore, as far as the Newe Were; (close to Yantlet creek) as has been repeatedly shown....
They said also that his lordship the King takes no prisage of corn, before the vessel has reached the wharf, and that then he is to have the quarter of wheat at two pence less than it would sell for; and this only for the support of his own household. Also that neither the Constable nor any other person is to have prisage of corn, but that if he wishes to buy anything, he must buy it in the market of the City, like the citizens, and at the option of the vendor; and they entreated his lordship the King, that he would preserve their liberties....
LIQUID MEASURES. A.D. 1264
In this year it was provided at the Hustings, on the morrow of All Souls (2 November), that all measures by which wine, ale and other liquors are sold, should be of the same dimensions, the mouth of the gallon being ordered to measure four inches across (cf. 1273).
FISHING REGULATIONS. A.D. 1269
Be it remarked that in ancient times it had been enacted and provided as to nets, used for fishing in the Thames, that in the body of such nets the meshes should be woven of such a size that a man’s thumb nail might be able wholly to pass through them; and that if in any net there should be found a single mesh otherwise woven, the whole of such net was to be condemned....
For which reason it was ... there were many nets seized and brought to the Guildhall, and there by twelve sworn men of the City, who had no share in the said nets, adjudged to be in contravention of the statutes aforesaid. But as to this decision some of the citizens thought differently; and in fact there were some who said, that that part only ought to be burnt which was faulty and unfair, and that the other parts which were good and lawful ought to be saved; while on the other hand, the City, in meeting of its commons, pronounced that a net, a part of which is bad, is bad all over....
... in accordance with the precedent that on another occasion such nets had been wholly burnt the citizens agreed in common that these should in the same manner be condemned; and accordingly so it was done ... all those nets, about twenty in number, were burnt in the middle of Westchepe; so that nothing of them whatever was saved.
A.D. 1269
In this year the pillory that stood in Chepe was broken through the negligence of the Bailiffs, and for a long time remained unrepaired; wherefore, in the meantime no punishment was inflicted on the bakers, who made their loaves just as they pleased; so much so, that each of their loaves was deficient in one third of the weight that it ought to weigh, according to the award that had been made upon the assay of the Feast of St. Michael preceding; and this lasted for a whole year and more.
In the same year, all the freemen of the kingdom of England, as well of vills as of cities, and boroughs and elsewhere, gave unto his lordship the King one twentieth part of all their moveable goods, towards payment of his expenses on his expedition to the land of Jerusalem. But afterwards Sir Edward undertook that expedition, on behalf of his father and himself.
A.D. 1270
These Sheriffs, immediately after the Feast of St. Michael, had a new pillory made, and erected it in the place where the old pillory had previously stood....
A.D. 1271
Throughout all this year, no punishment was inflicted upon the bakers; but they made loaves at their own will; so much so, that each loaf was deficient in weight one third, or one fourth at least.