English Economic History: Select Documents

SECTION I. The Early English Manor and Borough

THE EARLY ENGLISH MANOR AND BOROUGH

1. Rights and Duties of All Persons (Rectitudines singularum personarum), c. 1000 5

2. The form of the Domesday Inquest, 1086 9

3. The borough of Dover, 1086 10

4. The borough of Norwich, 1086 11

5. The borough of Wallingford, 1086 13

6. The customs of Berkshire, 1086 15

7. Land of the Church of Worcester, 1086 15

8. The manor of Rockland, 1086 16

9. The manor of Halesowen, 1086 16

10. The manor of Havering, 1086 17

SECTION II. The Feudal Structure

THE FEUDAL STRUCTURE

1. Frankalmoin, temp. Henry II 22

2. Knight Service, 1308 23

3. Grand Serjeanty, 1319 24

4. Petty Serjeanty, 1329 25

5. An action on the feudal incidents due from lands held by petty serjeanty, 1239-40 25

6. Free socage, 1342 26

7. Commutation of a serjeanty for knight service, 1254 27

8. Commutation of service for rent, 1269 27

9. Subinfeudation, 1278 28

10. Licence for the widow of a tenant in chief to marry, 1316 29

11. Marriage of a widow without licence, 1338 30

12. Alienation of land by a tenant in chief without licence, 1273 30

13. Wardship and marriage, 1179-80 30

14. Grant of an heir's marriage, 1320 31

15. Wardship, 1337 31

16. Collection of a carucage, 1198 32

17. An acquittance of the collectors of scutage of a sum of £10 levied by them and repaid, 1319 33

18. Payment of fines in lieu of knight service, 1303 34

19. The assessment of a tallage, 1314 35

20. A writ Precipe, c. 1200 36

21. Articles of enquiry touching rights and liberties and the state of the realm, 1274 36

22. Wreck of sea, 1337 40

SECTION III. The Jews

THE JEWS

1. Charter of liberties to the Jews, 1201 44

2. Ordinances of 1253 45

3. Expulsion of a Jew, 1253 46

4. Punishment for non-residence in a Jewry, 1270 47

5. Grant of a Jew, 1271 47

6. Ordinances of 1271 48

7. Removal of Jewish communities from certain towns to others, 1275 50

8. Disposition of debts due to Jews after their expulsion, 1290 50

SECTION IV. The Manor

THE MANOR

1. Extent of the manor of Havering, 1306-7 56

2. Extracts from the Court Rolls of the manor of Bradford, 1349-58 65

3. Deed illustrating the distribution of strips, 1397 76

4. Regulation of the common fields of Wimeswould, c. 1425 76

5. Lease of a manor to the tenants, 1279 79

6. Grant of a manor to the customary tenants at fee farm, ante 1272 81

7. Lease of manorial holdings, 1332 82

8. An agreement between lord and tenants, 1386 84

9. Complaints against a reeve, 1278 84

10. An eviction from copyhold land, temp. Henry IV.-Henry VI 85

11. Statute of Merton, 1235-6 87

12. An enclosure allowed, 1236-7 88

13. An enclosure disallowed, 1236-7 89

14. A villein on ancient demesne dismissed to his lord's court, 1224 89

15. Claim to be on ancient demesne defeated, 1237-8 90

16. The little writ of right, 1390 91

17. Villeinage established, 1225 92

18. Freedom and freehold established, 1236-7 93

19. A villein pleads villeinage on one occasion and denies it on another, 1220 93

20. An assize allowed to a villein, 1225 95

21. A freeman holding in villeinage, 1228 96

22. Land held by charter recovered from the lord, 1227 97

23. The manumission of a villein, 1334 97

24. Grant of a bondman, 1358 98

25. Imprisonment of a gentleman claimed as a bondman, 1447 98

26. Claim to a villein, temp. Henry IV-Henry VI 100

27. The effect of the Black Death, 1350 102

28. Accounts of the Iron Works of South Frith before and after the Black Death, 1345-50 103

29. The Peasants' Revolt, 1381 105

SECTION V. Towns and Gilds

TOWNS AND GILDS

1. Payments made to the Crown by gilds in the twelfth century, 1179-80 114

2. Charter of liberties to the borough of Tewkesbury, 1314 116

3. Charter of liberties to the borough of Gloucester, 1227 119

4. Dispute between towns touching the payment of toll, 1222 121

5. Dispute with a lord touching a gild merchant, 1223-4 123

6. The affiliation of boroughs, 1227 124

7. Bondman received in a borough, 1237-8 125

8. An inter-municipal agreement in respect of toll, 1239 126

9. Enforcement of charter granting freedom from toll, 1416 126

10. Licence for an alien to be of the Gild Merchant of London, 1252 127

11. Dispute between a gild merchant and an abbot, 1304 128

12. Complaints of the men of Leicester against the lord, 1322 131

13. Grant of pavage to the lord of a town, 1328 133

14. Misappropriation of the tolls levied for pavage, 1336 135

15. Ordinances of the White Tawyers of London, 1346 136

16. Dispute between Masters and Journeymen, 1396 138

17. Ordinances of the Dyers of Bristol, 1407 141

18. Incorporation of the Haberdashers of London, 1448 144

19. Indenture of Apprenticeship, 1459 147

20. A runaway apprentice, c. 1425 148

21. Incorporation of a gild for religious and charitable uses, 1447 148

SECTION VI. The Regulation of Trade, Industry, and Commerce

THE REGULATION OF TRADE, INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE

1. Assize of Measures, 1197 154

2. Grant to the lord of a manor of the assize of bread and ale and other liberties, 1307 155

3. An offence against the assize of bread, 1316 156

4. Inquisition touching a proposed market and fair, 1252 157

5. Grant of a fair at St. Ives to the abbot of Ramsey, 1202 158

6. Grant of a market at St. Ives to the abbot of Ramsey, 1293 158

7. Proceedings in the court at the fair of St. Ives, 1288 159

8. The Statute of Winchester, 1285 160

9. The recovery of debt on a recognisance, 1293 161

10. Procedure at a fair pursuant to the Statute for Merchants, 1287 162

11. The aulnage of cloth, 1291 163

12. The Ordinance of Labourers, 1349 164

13. Presentments made before the Justices of Labourers, 1351 167

14. Excessive prices charged by craftsmen, 1354 169

15. Fines levied for excessive wages, 1351 169

16. Writ to enforce payment of excess of wages to the collectors of a subsidy, 1350 170

17. Application of fines for excessive wages to a subsidy, 1351-2 171

18. Labour Legislation: the Statute of 12 Richard II, 1388 171

19. Labour Legislation: a Bill in Parliament, 23 Henry VI, 1444-5 176

20. Organisation of the Staple, 1313 178

21. Arguments for the establishment of home staple towns, 1319 180

22. Ordinances of the Staple, 1326 181

23. The election of the mayor and constables of a Staple town, 1358 184

24. Royal letters patent over-ruled by the custom of the Staple, c. 1436 185

25. Prohibition of export of materials for making cloth, 1326 186

26. Commercial policy, temp. Edward IV 187

27. The perils of foreign travel, 1315 188

28. Grant of letters of marque and reprisals, 1447 190

29. Grant of liberties to the merchants of Douai, 1260 192

30. Aliens at a fair, 1270 193

31. Confirmation of liberties to the merchants of Almain, 1280 194

32. Alien weavers in London, 1362 195

33. The hosting of aliens, 1442 197

34. An offence against Stat. 18 Henry VI for the hosting of aliens, 1440 198

35. Imprisonment of an alien craftsman, c. 1440 199

36. Petition against usury, 1376 200

37. Action upon usury, c. 1480 201

SECTION VII. Taxation, Customs and Currency

TAXATION, CUSTOMS AND CURRENCY

1. Form of the taxation of a fifteenth and tenth, 1336 204

2. Disposition of a subsidy of tonnage and poundage, 1382 206

3. The king's prise of wines, 1320 206

4. The custom on wool, 1275 207

5. The custom on wine, 1302 208

6. The custom on general imports, 1303 211

7. Administration of the search for money exported, 1303 216

8. Provisions for the currency, 1335 217

9. Opinions on the state of English money, 1381-2 220

Part Ii: 1485-1660

SECTION I

RURAL CONDITIONS

1. Villeinage in the Reign of Elizabeth, 1561 231

2. Customs of the Manor of High Furness, 1576 232

3. Petition in Chancery for Restoration to a Copyhold, c. 1550 234

4. Petition in Chancery for Protection against Breach of Manorial Customs, 1568 241

5. Lease of the manor of Ablode to a Farmer, 1516 245

6. Lease of the Manor of South Newton to a Farmer, 1568 246

7. The Agrarian Programme of the Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536 247

8. The Demands of the Rebels led by Ket, 1549 247

9. Petition to Court of Requests from Tenants Ruined by Transference of a Monastic Estate to lay hands, 1553 251

10. Petition to Court of Requests to stay Proceedings against Tenants Pending the Hearing of their Case by the Council of the North, 1576 254

11. Petition from Freeholders of Wootton Bassett for Restoration of Rights of Common, temp. Charles I 255

12. Petition to Crown of Copyholders of North Wheatley, 1629 258

13. An Act Avoiding Pulling Down of Towns, 1515 260

14. The Commission of Enquiry Touching Enclosures, 1517 262

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