Under Edward II, all citizens of London had to be enrolled in the trade guild of their craft.
The commons became a permanent and distinct body with an elected spokesman or speaker and its own clerk in Edward III's reign. Also, sheriffs them dealt directly with the King instead of through an earl.
To support a war with France, Edward III permanently instituted the staple system, by which wool exports were taxed through his officials only at the designated staple port. These officials included collectors, controllers, searchers, surveyors, clerks, weighers, and crane-keepers.
Certain large wool merchants were allowed to create a monopoly on the export of wool. Also under Edward III, Flanders weavers were encouraged to come to England to teach the English how to weave and finish fine cloth. A cloth industry grew with all the manufacturing processes under the supervision of one capitalist manufacturer, who set up his enterprise in the country to avoid the regulations of the towns. The best places were hilly areas where there were many streams and good pasture for flocks of sheep. He hired shearers to cut the nap as short as possible to give a smooth surface, then spinsters to card and spin the wool in their country cottages, then weavers, and then fullers and dyers to come to fulling mills established near streams for their waterpower. Fulling became mechanized as heavy wooden hammers run by water-power replaced feet trampling the cloth covered with soap or fuller's clay, until it became thick and smaller. The shaft loom was a technological advance in weaving. This loom was horizontal and its frames, which controlled the lifting of the warp threads, could each be raised by a foot treadle. This left both hands free to throw and catch the shuttle attached to the woof thread. Also many more weaving patterns became possible through the use of different thread configurations on the frames.
The Law
Edward I remodeled the law in response to grievances and to problems which came up in the courts. The changes improved the efficiency of justice and served to accommodate it to the changing circumstances of the social system. These statutes were:
"No man by force of arms, malice or menacing shall disturb anyone in making free election [of sheriffs, coroners, conservators of the peace by freeholders of the shire]."
"No city, borough, town, nor man shall be amerced without reasonable cause and according to the severity of his trespass. That is, every freeman saving his freehold, a merchant saving his merchandise, a villein saving his waynage [implements of agriculture], and that by his peers."
No distress shall be taken of ploughing-cattle or sheep.
Young salmon shall not be taken from waters in the spring.