ENGLISH MARKETS AND FAIRS. 49 



pay. And when he comes back the second time, then the 

 buyer is not to be found ; or else if he is found, he feigns some- 

 thing else, by reason whereof the poor men cannot have their 

 pay. And, sometimes, while the poor men are waiting for 

 their pay the buyer causes the corn to be wetted ; and then, 

 when they come to ask for their pay which was agreed upon, 

 [they are told] to wait until such a day as the buyer shall 

 choose to name, or else to take off a part of the price ; which 

 if they will not do, they may take their corn and carry it 

 away ; a thing which they cannot do, because it is wetted, 

 [and] in another state than it was when they sold it. 



Any person " towards whom such knavishness " as 

 this is committed is to complain to the mayor, and the 

 shifty buyer, on conviction, is to pay " double the value 

 and full damages as well," or, in default, to stand in the 

 pillory. 



Another of these enactments — which probably refers 

 to the time of Edward I., and no doubt then merely 

 codified long-established custom — states that two loaves 

 of bread are to be made for id., and that no loaf is to be 

 baked of bran. The bakers generally were under severe 

 restrictions, and it was provided that if " any default " 

 were found in the bread of a baker of the city, he was, 

 for the first offence, to be drawn on a hurdle from the 

 Guildhall to his own house " through the great streets 

 where there may be most people assembled, and through 

 the great streets that are most dirty, with the faulty loaf 

 hanging from his neck." 



The necessity for guarding against dishonest dealing 

 lies at the very root of the market system. One main 

 object which the market served was to secure publicity 

 of sale, so that there might be credible witnesses to the 

 transfer of property. In the tenth century an effort 

 appears to have been made to prevent all buying and 

 selling, even of cattle, except in a market town. According 

 to the laws attributed to William the Conqueror, sales 

 were only allowed to take place in cities, walled towns, 

 castles, and other safe places where there was sufficient 

 good government and security to insure respect for the 



A.F. E 



