Middlemen in English Business 177 



of Elynour Rummynge who kept an alehouse ''in Sothray.'"^ The 

 towns prescribed officially stamped measures, appointed ale-tasters 

 or conners, to test the quality, and fixed the prices: these things were 

 done in behalf of the consumer. Sometimes they went further and 

 suppressed the alehouses and appointed common brewers and tipplers 

 who were to sell at fixed prices. For example, in Croscombe 1617- 

 1618 all the tippling houses except Thomas Delton's were suppressed; 

 and in Taunton 1615 the innkeepers were constrained to buy from 

 the common brewers appointed by the court at fixed prices. - 



Another line of regulations concerned the maintenance of the 

 public peace. In London all ale-house doors in the fifteenth century- 

 were closed at curfew.^ The license system was sometimes applied 

 locally. Abingdon licensed her retailers of ale and fined the brewers 

 who put it into the cellars of unlicensed retailers.^ During EHzabeth's 

 time Sir Walter Raleigh was given a patent for licensing wine taverns, 

 and he appears to have made free use of his franchise.'^ But this 

 license system was of great service to the police power of the state, 

 centrahzing, as it did, authority and giving the innkeeper a social 

 importance and public responsibility. It also became a frequent 

 and considerable means of raising money for the exigencies of the 

 government.^ During the Puritan regime alehouses were expropriated 

 of their Ucenses for many minor offenses, especially gambling and 

 drinking on Sunday. '^ 



In 1577 a census of the inns, alehouses and taverns through England 

 was taken. York had 3941, 3679 of which were tippUng houses; 

 Nottingham had 1028; Lincoln 766; Kent 702; Cumberland 656; 

 Devon 560; etc. The numbers seem prodigious considering the num- 

 ber of the population ; and the counties which were relativeh' poorest 

 in wealth seem to have had an undue number of alehouses. In the 

 counties nearest the metropolis the ratio of inns and taverns to ale- 

 houses was greater than in the more remote counties. In Berks one- 

 eighth, in Herts one-fourth, in Bucks one-fifth, and in Suffolk more 

 than one-third were inns and taverns. The inns served the more 

 intinerant classes and their reported numbers may be some rough index 



1 V. C. H., Surrey, II, 378-79. 



- V. C. H., Somers, II, 402; see also Hants, \', 427. 



3 Lib. .\lb. I, LXII. 



* V. C. H., Berks, I, 406. 

 'Cf. HaU, Eliz. Soc, 79. 

 « Ibid., 80. 



• V. C. H., Berks, I, 406; Hants, V. 427. 



