A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

Guilds.

This form of commerce, restricted as has been before explained, was certain to break down as the wants of the nation increased. There was a company of merchant adventurers founded, perhaps, though this seems very uncertain, as early as Henry III.’s reign, which had the right to trade in other commodities besides the staple, and to choose its own ports. It was the growth of this company which, in the next century, had most to do with breaking down the staple monopoly. It is needless to point out the bad effects which this constant interference must have produced. It is certain that the foreign merchant paid himself well for the extreme difficulties placed in the way of his business; while, at the same time, the difficulties of procuring foreign articles of luxury must have gone far to render the habits of ordinary life rough and simple. The same principle of restriction, which was established in the commerce of the country, existed in the retail trade. The towns of England were of natural and accidental growth, accumulations of men who had gathered for purposes of self-defence or convenience, living in accordance with the ordinary habits of the country, in the same position, in fact, with regard to the king and their lords as any other society of men—citizens originally by right of the possession of land, and as the system of lordship established itself, bound to customary duties to their lord, just as the inhabitants of the country were. In the same way the citizens of the town, with the exception of these customary duties, were free and self-governing. They gradually, and chiefly by means of purchase, obtained freedom from the customary duties, and thus became independent, self-governing communities. Charters securing them freedom, in the case of the royal cities at all events, were many of them due to the necessities of the Angevin kings, and to their want of money for the payment of their mercenary troops. The close neighbourhood of the inhabitants of towns early introduced an artificial system of union, analogous to the frankpledge. Men formed themselves into what were known as frith-guilds,[74] the members of which were mutually responsible for one another, met at periodical feasts, supported one another’s poor, and in other respects performed the duties of members of an artificial family. As trade increased these guilds in the generality of cases coalesced into one, which took upon itself the direction of trade, and was known as the merchant guild. With the natural tendency of a governing body, this old merchant guild became exceedingly exclusive. New-comers to the town were not admitted to it, and craftsmen were generally excluded from its limits. In turn those craftsmen established guilds of their own, known as craft-guilds, by the warden and leaders of which the bye-laws of the particular craft were formed. Between these and their aristocratic neighbours, the merchant guild, quarrels arose, and in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the contest between the two was fought out, the craft-guilds eventually securing their acknowledgment and a share in the government of the town. Speaking generally, therefore, we may conceive of the towns of England as being divided into a series of guilds, the leaders of which usually formed a governing body, and which were capable of making bye-laws for their own special members. The commercial aim of these associations was, to insure good work, to insure work for all its members, and to resist that spirit of competition which was gradually rising, and which ended in the creation of two classes, the capitalist and the workman. To secure these objects, they limited the number of master workmen, admitted candidates to their association only after lengthened apprenticeships, limited the number of apprentices each master might employ, and kept a close supervision over the articles made, which were usually authenticated by the corporation mark.[75]

These restrictions upon industry at the close of our period were beginning to break down; round the master workmen, there was arising a class of journeymen or day labourers, whose ranks were constantly swelled by fugitive serfs from the country; while, on the other side, individual enterprise was making itself felt, and capital was being collected, the owners of which refused to submit to the old corporation laws. The constant supervision both of trade and of the work of artisans supported the notion that governing bodies had the right to set prices on the articles under their control, a principle which was used not only by the guilds, but by the Government, as when, in the famine years of 1315 and 1316, it prescribed the exact price of all articles of food. As this had the natural effect of keeping things entirely out of the market, so that butcher’s meat disappeared altogether, it was shortly repealed; the prices to be demanded for victuals were constantly subject to the supervision of justices. The assize of bread, which is commonly assigned to the fifty-first year of Henry III., 1266, regulated the price in accordance with the market prices of corn, but the assizes of other matters, such as wine, wood, fish, fowls, etc., seem to have been perfectly arbitrary.

Ships.

Though thus restricted, the trade of the English was very considerable. Their ships reached into the Baltic, where a constant communication was kept up with the Teutonic order, to whom Prussia belonged. The intercourse with that order was close. We hear of Henry, the first Duke of Lancaster, the Earl of Derby, afterwards Henry IV., and Thomas of Gloucester, repairing to their assistance. But the English merchants could never secure an equality of rights in the Baltic, the trade of which was regarded as a monopoly by the Hanseatic towns. English ships also visited Spain, so that Chaucer could describe his experienced shipman as knowing all the harbours from Gothland to Finnisterre;[76] while Venetian and Genoese merchants, in whose hands the whole trade of the East was, brought their goods largely to England; indeed, in 1379, a Genoese merchant is said to have suggested to Richard II. to make Southampton the emporium of all the oriental trade of the North. So great was the importance of the English shipping, that Edward III. distinctly claimed for himself and his predecessors the dominion of the sea.[77] The ships were, however, though numerous, of small burden; in the great fleet employed by Edward at Calais, there were 710 vessels, with crews amounting to 14,151 persons, which would give an average crew of about twenty men; and as it is said that there were about sixty-five sailors to every hundred tons, it would make the average size of the vessels very small. Indeed, a ship manned by thirty seamen, employed to convey Edward I. to the Continent, was regarded as a wonder for its size. Of navy, properly speaking, there was little or none. There were only twenty-five royal ships at Calais, the rest were all merchantmen pressed for the service. About this time it became habitual to put cannon on board ships. When used for military purposes, they were manned by troops and archers.

It has been mentioned that the trade of England was almost entirely in raw materials. The cloth manufactured had hitherto been of the roughest description, but Edward III., true to his view of keeping English trade for the English, and moved perhaps by the wealth of his allies the Flemish, attempted to introduce the manufacture of finer cloths. In 1331, he invited weavers and fullers from Flanders, and the patent exists which he gave to one John Kempe, to practise and teach his mystery.[78] This seems to have been the beginning of the finer cloth manufactures of England.

Furniture.

Dress.

Houses.

The fact of so much trouble being taken to organize trade shows the extent of it, and in spite of all ignorance and mismanagement, it was certain to produce wealth. The standard of comfort among all classes was improving, though there was nothing like what we should now speak of as luxury. The furniture used, even in the houses of the rich, was still rude. Things which are now found everywhere, and taken as matters of course, were then valuable rarities—beds, bedsteads, and rich clothing were frequently left by will. The lists of moveables, on which taxes were paid, are exceedingly meagre. A stool or two, a chest, and a few metal pots, constituted the ordinary supply of furniture. In the houses of the very rich, art had indeed begun to show itself. The payments of Henry III. to foreign artists for paintings in his house are mentioned. Intercourse with the French, and especially with the Spaniards, tended to increase these more luxurious habits. Carpets had always been used by Eastern people, and the Moors had introduced the custom in Spain. Thus, on the marriage of Edward I., before the arrival of Eleanor of Castile, her brother, the Archbishop of Toledo, made his appearance. The hangings of his chamber excited the wonder of the people, and Edward, always inclined to ostentation, had the rooms of the bride elect similarly decorated. This is said to have been the introduction of carpets to England; but still the usual covering of the floor was rushes. There is frequent mention of payments for rushes for the King’s chambers. In the matter of clothes the same change is observable. The extravagant court of Edward II. is said to have introduced parti-coloured garments. In Edward III’s reign, wealth had so increased in all ranks that it was found necessary to pass sumptuary laws, sharply dividing classes by the dress they were allowed to wear, and to confine silk and the finer woollen cloths to the higher ranks, for the sake perhaps of the English wool manufactures. In Richard II.’s reign, extravagance went still further. With his Queen, Anne of Bohemia, came in the awkward habit, soon adopted by all classes, of wearing long shoes, called cracowys or pykys, which required to be tied with silver chains to the knee before the wearer could move.[79] And Stowe says that Richard himself wore a garment made of gold, silver, and precious stones, worth 3000 marks. At the same time the rich built more comfortable houses. Castles ceased to be mere places of defence. They were at once strongholds and handsome dwelling-places. Warwick and Windsor castles may be looked on as fair specimens of the more magnificent buildings of the time. Meanwhile, though among the few, and on special occasions, splendour was found, houses, even in the streets of considerable towns, such as Colchester, the tenth city of the empire, were still built of mud. In Edward III.’s reign, it was still necessary to issue frequent orders for the cleansing of the streets of London, that his courtiers might not get into difficulties as they moved from Westminster to the City. Filth accumulated in the narrow by-lanes; and, as in the East, crows were held sacred as the only scavengers. Pavement there was none, and lanterns were hoisted from the top of Bow Church, to guide the wayfarer through the paths of the heaths that surrounded the metropolis.