r 54 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



the same problems that arise within the first ten years after 

 the Black Death. During this limited period and for the 

 present subject it is the relation between the old courts and 

 the separate sessions of the justices of labourers that is 

 especially important, since the joint commissions of the 

 peace and for labourers were in force for only a small part 

 of this period. 



In dealing with this problem there are two specific points 

 to be settled. First, what portion of the substance of the 

 ordinance and the statute was already, previous to 1349, 

 being enforced by the local authorities? Second, did this 

 national legislation come within the competence of the old 

 local courts ? The material for an exhaustive discussion of 

 these two points exists in abundance and deserves the full- 

 est examination; my conclusions are unfortunately based 

 on a very insufficient study of the sources, and must be 

 regarded merely as tentative and indicative of the direction 

 that future research should take.^ 



The provisions of the ordinance and statute fall naturally 

 into three main groups : the restrictions on wages and 

 prices; the interference with the mobility of the labourer; 

 the enforcement of the contract between employer and 

 employee.^ The first of these, as related to the whole 

 mediaeval theory of reasonable price, has attracted the great- 

 est share of attention from economic historians. In their 

 endeavor to connect these provisions with earlier ones of 



^ For the sake of illustrating as completely as possible all phases of the 

 relation of the statutes to the community, it seems wise to undertake 

 this inadequate survey of the subject. The account of the sources is 

 necessarily so slight that it is presented in the footnotes instead of in 

 the appendix. 



^The prohibition of alms to able-bodied beggars is omitted from this 

 discussion. For a more detailed analysis of the measures, cf. pt. i, ch. 

 ii, s. 3. 



