What is it that the Pewterers ask?
1. That the Mayor and Aldermen will consider the points of their trade, and that they will provide redress for faults.
Observe that they have no authority of their own such as they afterwards obtained as a company.
2. An assay of the material.
3. Admission, by apprenticeship, “according to the usage of the City.”
4. Protection against “foreigners,” i.e. persons not freemen of the City.
5. No secret profits by making vessels of false alloy for export to country fairs and markets.
6. The responsibility of every workman for his own work.
7. Penalties for damaging a master’s goods and for infringing the rules of the craft.
FRONTISPIECE TO THE GRANGERISED EDITION OF BRAYLEY’S LONDON AND MIDDLESEX
In the Guildhall Library, showing the Arms of the twelve principal City Companies.
| Submitted to Mayor and Aldermen. | Date of Company. | |
|---|---|---|
| (Grocers). | ||
| Ordinances of the Pepperers of Sopere-lane | 1316 | 1345 |
| Regulations made by the Armourers of London | 1322 | 1422 |
| Ordinance of the Tapicers | 1331 | — |
| Ordinances of the trade called “Whittawyers” | 1346 | — |
| „of the Pewterers | 1348 | 1474 |
| „of the Glovers | 1349 | 1639 |
| „of the Shearmen | 1350 | — |
| „of the Braelers | 1355 | — |
| Regulations for the trade of Masons | 1356 | 1411 |
| Ordinance of the Waxchandlers | 1358 | 1484 |
| Regulations for the trade of the Alien Weavers in London | 1362 | — |
| Ordinances of the Plumbers | 1365 | 1612 |
| „of the Pelterers, or Pellipers | 1365 | — |
| „of the Tawyers | 1365 | — |
| Regulations for the Taverners | 1370 | — |
| Ordinances of the Court-Hand Writers, or Scriveners | 1373 | 1617 |
| „of the Barbers | 1376 | 1461 |
| „of the Fullers | 1376 | — |
| „of the Hurers, as to fulling | 1376 | — |
| „of the Cheesemongers | 1377 | — |
| „of the Cooks and Pastelers, or Piebakers | 1378 | 1473 |
| „of the Cutlers | 1380 | 1413 |
| „of the Founders | 1389 | 1615 |
| „of the Blacksmiths | 1394 | 1578 |
| „of the Hurers | 1398 | — |
| Ordinance of the Fletchers | 1403 | 1570 |
| „of the Writers of Text-letter, Limners, and others who bind and sell books | 1403 | — |
| „of the Forcermakers | 1406 | — |
| Ordinances of the Brasiers | 1416 | — |
The triumph of the crafts was completed in the reign of Edward the Third. At the same time it was a triumph which needed constant watchfulness. This necessity is shown by the case of the rich Pepperers, who seceded in 1345 and set up a company of their own. They were so rich that they commanded the Market. A petition was presented to the King complaining that—
“Great mischief had newly arisen, as well to the King as to the great men and commons, from the merchants called Grocers (grossers), who engrossed all manner of merchandize vendible, and who suddenly raised the prices of such merchandize within the realm; putting to sale by covin, and by ordinances made amongst themselves, in their own society, which they call ‘the Fraternity and Gild of Merchants,’ such merchandizes as were most dear, and keeping in stores the others until times of dearth and scarcity.” (L. Brentano, History and Development of Gilds, 1870.)
It was, therefore, ordered that in future all “artificers and people of mysteries” should choose each his own mystery, and should then practise no other.
What was the power of the incorporated Company? The keynote of the difference between the Company and the Fraternity was that the former had authority and the latter had none.