English Marhets and Fairs. 
105 
added that the market owners in some cases, at least, provided 
sworn meters for measuring cloth, corn, salt, &c. Possibly to 
this cause — in part at least — is due the remarkable diversity of 
local weights and measures, each being recognised as a standard 
in its particular district. So far as the regulation of markets 
was concerned, the main object of all the ancient laws and 
usages was to provide for fair dealing, and to prevent and 
punish chicanery. The following passage, quoted from the 
Liber ALhus of the City of London, is a good instance both of 
the “ tricks of the trade ” current in mediaeval times, and of the 
solicitude with which the authorities sought to defeat them — ' 
And whereas some buyers and brokers of corn do buy corn in the city 
of country folks who bring it to the city to sell, and give, on the bargain 
being made, a penny or halfpenny by way of earnest ; and tell the peasants 
to take the corn to their house, and that there they shall receive their pay. 
And when they come and think to have their payment directly, the buyer 
says that his wife at his house has gone out and has taken the key of the 
room, so that he cannot get at his money ; but that the other must go away, 
and come again soon and receive his 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 something 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 suck 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 one penny, 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 ofience, 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 
’ Jlrst Report of Ma/rket Rights and Tolls Commission, Vol. I., p. 47, 
