The most striking
difference with the country at large are the ordinances on
the repair or demolition of buildings, encroachments on
another's building, fires, and nuisances. Specimens of other
characteristic urban disputes are: selling bad food, using
bad materials, unskillful or careless workmanship,
fraudulent weights and measures, fraud in buying and
selling, forestalling or regrating [buying in one market to
resell in another market], acting in a way likely to
endanger the liberties of the borough, usury, trading
without being a citizen, assisting other unlicensed persons
to trade, unlawfully forming a guild, complaints against
various guilds in which trade might be organized. Since the
ordinances were always liable to be called in question
before the King's courts, they tended to become uniform and
in harmony with the principles of the common law. Also,
trading between boroughs kept them knowledgeable about each
other's customs and conditions for trade, which then tended
to standardize. Boroughs often had seals to prove communal
consent and tended to act as a corporate body.
Borough ordinances often include arson such as this one:
"And if a street be set on fire by any one, his body shall
be attached and cast into the midst of the fire." Robbery by
the miller was specially treated by an ordinance that "And
if the miller be attainted [found guilty] of robbery of the
grain or of the flour to the amount of 4d.
Pages:
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392