Building contracts began specifying the provision of
adequate cesspits for the privies at town houses, whether the
latrines were built into the house or as an outhouse. Also, in the
better houses, there grew a practice of carting human and animal
fecal matter at night to dung heaps outside the city walls. There
was one public latrine in each ward and about twelve dung-carts
for the whole city. Country manor houses had latrines on the
ground floor and/or the basement level. Stairwells between floors
had narrow and winding steps.
In London, the Goldsmiths, Merchant Taylors [Tailors], Skinners,
and Girdlers bought royal charters, which recognized their power
of self-government as a company and their power to enforce their
standards, perhaps throughout the country. The Goldsmiths, the
Mercers, and the Saddlers became the first guilds to receive, in
1394-5, charters of incorporation, which gave them perpetual
existence. As such they could hold land in "mortmain" [dead hand],
thus depriving the king of rights that came to him on the death of
a tenant-in-chief. They were authorized to bestow livery on their
members and were called Livery Companies. The liverymen [freemen]
of the trading companies elected London's representatives to
Parliament.
In all towns, the organization of craft associations spread
rapidly downwards through the trades and sought self-government.
Craft guilds were gaining much power relative to the old merchant
guilds in governing the towns.
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