1393. Ordinance by the mayor and aldermen of London as to markets of West Cheap and Cornhill.
… That the masters or those assigned thereto of each trade of which the wares are brought to the said markets shall have power, together with the beadle of the ward or other officer thereto assigned, to survey, assay and stop all false and defective wares, in the markets aforesaid or elsewhere exposed for sale, and to present the same to the chamberlain to be there adjudged upon as to whether they are forfeitable or not; and further to arrest to the use of the said chamber all other things and wares in hostels or other places exposed for sale against the form…. Of the which forfeitures so by the said masters, or others thereto assigned, taken and adjudged as forfeited, the said masters or persons thereto assigned shall have one third part for their trouble.
Riley, Memorials of London, 532.
1556. Of the clerks of the market of Oxford and of the fixing of prices.
The clerks of the market should be chosen of such as have experience of the prices which, for necessity or convenience, pertain to food and clothing, and of such as have knowledge, power and will faithfully and diligently to fill the office enjoined on them. Especially it behoves them to see that no fraud is committed as regards the measures and weights and quality of all foodstuffs and of all things which belong to clothing, and to observe the statutes and ordinances issued in this behoof; and since, for the most part, among these commodities, high prices greatly flourish, the clerk should summon to his aid the presidents of colleges and such others of the university as he knows to be fit for the business, and should consult with them as to what course can be taken to render the prices lower.
Oxford Hist. Soc., Collectanea, II. 104.
1468. The assize[11] of a tallowchandler is that he selleth salt, oatmeal, soap and other divers chaffer, that his weights and measures be assized[12] and sealed and true beam. For when he buyeth a pound of tallow for an halfpenny, he shall sell a pound of candle for a penny, that is a farthing for the wick and the wax and another farthing for the workmanship. And right as tallow higheth and loweth, so he for to sell his candle. And if his stuff be not good, or any he lack of his weight, or any he sell not after the price of tallow, he to be amerced, the first time twelvepence, the second time twentypence, the third time fortypence, and to forfeit all that is forfeitable; and he to be judged according to the form of statutes.
Printed in Strype's edition of Stow's Survey of London, Book V. 344.
1327. John de Causton, citizen of London, has shown the king, by petition before him and his council, that John Dergayn, the late king's ulnager, in the eighth year of his reign, took five pieces of John's striped cloth of Gaunt (Ghent) outside his shop in Boston Fair, asserting that they were not of the assize, and that they were therefore forfeited to the late king, and delivered to Ralph de Stokes, then keeper of the king's wardrobe, and that it was afterward found, by enquiry made by the said king's order before the treasurer and barons of the Exchequer, that the cloth was of the assize and ought not thus to be forfeited, and that the cloth was worth 22½ marks; … and he has prayed the king to cause that sum to be allowed to him.
Cal. of Close, 1327-30, 86.