9mo Maii 1620 coram domino officiali principali etc. et in eius camera etc. comparuit dictus Witham et ei objecto ut supra allegavit that he is seldom at home himselfe but leaves his man to deale in the business of his shop, and yf any fault be committed he saith the fault is in his man and not in himselfe, and he sayeth he will give charge and take care that no oppression shall be made nor offence committed this way hereafter, humbly praying the judge for favour to be dismissed, unde dominus monuit eum that thereafter neither by himselfe nor his servant he offende in the lyke nor suffer any such oppression to be committed, et cum hac monitione eum dimisit.
[54] S.P.D. Eliz., vol. lxxv, no. 54.
[55] For an account of these expedients see my introduction to Wilson’s Discourse upon Usury, 1925, pp. 123-8.
[56] Richard Hooker, The Laws of Ecclesiastical Policy, bk. viii, chap. i, par. 5.
[57] Acts of the Privy Council, vol. xxvii, 1597, p. 129.
[58] The Stiffkey Papers (ed. H. W. Saunders, Royal Historical Society, Camden Third Series, vol. xxvi, 1915), p. 140.
[59] Quoted by E. M. Leonard, The Early History of English Poor Relief, 1900, p. 148.
[60] For an account of the treatment of exchange business under Elizabeth, see Wilson, op. cit., Introduction, pp. 146-54.
[61] For references see ibid., pp. 164-5; and Les Reportes del Cases in Camera Stellata, 1593-1609, ed. W. P. Baildon, 1894, pp. 235-7. The latter book contains several instances of intervention by the Star Chamber in cases of engrossing of corn (pp. 71, 76-7, 78-9, 91) and of enclosure and depopulation (pp. 49-52, 164-5, 192-3, 247, 346-7).
[62] A Discourse of the Common Weal of this Realm of England, ed. E. Lamond, 1893, p. 14.