The advantages
of guild membership extended beyond profit in the wool trade.
Members were free from the tolls that strangers paid. They alone
were free to sell certain goods retail. They had the right to
share in any bargain made in the presence of a guildsman, whether
the transaction took place in Leicester or in a distant market. In
the general interest, the guild forbade the use of false weights
and measures and the production of shoddy goods. It maintained a
wool-beam for weighing wool. It also forbade middlemen from
profiting at the expense of the public. For instance, butchers'
wives were forbidden from buying meat to sell again in the same
market unless they cooked it. The moneys due to the king from the
guilds of a town were collected by the town reeve.
When the king wanted to raise an army, he summoned his major baron
tenants-in-chief, who commanded their own armed dependent vassals,
and he directed the sheriffs to command the minor tenants-in-chief
and supply them with equipment. A baron could assemble an army in
a day, but might use it to resist any perceived misgovernment by a
king. Armed conflict did not interfere much with daily life
because the national wealth was still composed mostly of flocks
and herds and simple buildings. Machinery, furniture, and the
stock of shops were still sparse. Life would be back to normal
within a week.
Henry wanted to check this power of the barons.
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