The status of the foreign merchants in general was no doubt materially improved by the statute De Novâ Custumâ of the 31st Edward I. (A.D. 1303). From it we learn, among numerous other particulars of interest, that no trader was allowed to break off or abandon any contract when once the ‘God’s penny,’ or earnest money, had by the contracting principals been given and received. All bailiffs and officers of fairs, cities, boroughs, and market-towns were to do speedy justice to all merchant-strangers, and duly to hold Court from day to day, according to the provisions of Law-merchant, for that purpose. In every market-town and fair throughout the realm, the royal Beam, or Balance, was to be placed in some fixed spot; and, before weighing, the scale was to be viewed by vendor and purchaser alike, to see that it was empty; the arms, too, of the balance were to be exactly equal before the troner weighed, and, when weighing, he was to remove his hands the instant he found them on a level.”—Liber Custumarum, vol. ii. pt. i. pp. xxxiv.-xlvii.

[APPENDIX IV]
NAMES OF STREETS

The following list of mediæval streets is compiled from Riley’s Memorials, Sharpe’s Calendar of Wills, Liber Custumarum, and the Ninth Report of the Commissioners. Other streets could be found in other documents, but this list certainly gives a very full index to the streets of Mediæval London. They are here produced alphabetically.

The abbreviations used are simply “A.” for Alley, “L.” for Lane, “R.” for Row, “S.” for Street:—

APPENDIX V

The following is a list of the principal residents and householders of London, 12 Edward II., compiled for purposes of assessment: it shows how many great men of the time had town houses in the fourteenth century.