To be free of something meant to
have exclusive rights and privileges with respect to it. Selling
wholesale could take place only in a borough. Burgesses were free
to marry. They were not subject to defense except of the borough.
They were exempt from attendance at county and hundred courts. The
king assessed a tallage [ad hoc tax] usually at ten per cent of
property or income. In the boroughs, merchant and manufacturing
guilds controlled prices and assured quality. The head officer of
the guild usually controlled the borough, which excluded rival
merchant guilds. A man might belong to more than one guild, e.g.
one for his trade and another for religion.
Craft guilds grew up in the towns, such as the tanners at Oxford,
which later merged with the shoemakers into a cordwainers' guild.
There were weavers' guilds in several towns, including London,
which were given royal sanction and protection for annual payments
(twelve pounds of silver for London. They paid an annual tribute
and were given a monopoly of weaving cloth within a radius of
several miles. Guild rules covered attendance of the members at
church services, the promotion of pilgrimages, celebration of
masses for the dead, common meals, relief of poor brethren and
sisters, the hours of labor, the process of manufacture, the wages
of workmen, and technical education. Henry standardized the yard
as the length of his own arm.
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