178 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTES OF LABOURERS 



parture and retention as given in the Registrum include 

 the significant phrase facta . . . promissione . . . de 

 salario plus solito recipiendo,^ and although on the Plea 

 Rolls the writs are usually shortened by the omission of 

 just this phrase, even here it sometimes appears." There 

 are instances where the actual figures are mentioned in the 

 count. For example, in an action for departure and re- 

 tention it appears that the plaintiff's terms had been as fol- 

 lows : for one servant, 2d. per day and food, for the other 

 servant, a quarter of corn every ten weeks and 7s. a year; 

 while the tempting advance offered by the defendant was 

 I2d. per day for each servant.^ Indirectly therefore the 

 wages legislation was being enforced through the medium 

 of the enforcement of contracts. More important, how- 

 ever, than either of the above considerations is the status 

 of the common law in relation to parol contracts. Stress 

 has previously been laid on the fact that at this date only 

 contracts based on writing had validity in the courts of 

 king's bench and of common pleas ; * in a later section '"^ it 

 will be shown somewhat in detail that the ordinance ren- 

 dered it possible to enforce in these courts agreements be- 



'App., 411. 



^I give a few references to writs enrolled on the Plea Rolls which in- 

 clude the phrases beginning "nee ulliis eciam mercedes etc.," or 

 "facta . . . promissione etc.," or both. Case 3, list in app.; De 

 Banco; 29, Hill.. 59, Bucks.; 69, Norfolk; 29, Pasch., 157 d, Wilts.; 

 152 d, Dorset. Coram Rege; 2"/, Trin., Shareshull, 45 d, Midd.; 27, 

 Mich., Shareshull, 94, Norfolk; -/j d, Sufifolk; 28, Hill., Shareshull, 

 40, Lincoln; 74, Surrey; 59 d, Oxford. My impression is that as the 

 years went by the shorter form of the writ became more usual. 



'Case 3, list in app. This is the only instance that has come to my 

 notice where wages are as high as those mentioned by Knighton, ii, 

 62, quoted by Professor Tout, Polit. Hist, of Eng., 372. The counts 

 furnish excellent opportunities for adding to our knowledge of the rates 

 of wages, 



*Pt. ii, ch. i, and especially pp. 157-158, notes i and 2. ^S. 5. 



