Chapter X (2)

In 1266 the town of Cromarty paid to the Crown £7 of rent for lands; but Robert I. granted the town of Cromarty to the Earl of Ross. In fact the whole of the northern burghs were much under the control of the local nobles during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Elgin, Tain, and other towns associated with the Church, were often under a kind of vassalage to the local nobles. The city of Elgin, with her grand cathedral and upwards of a hundred churchmen, was sometimes forced to place herself under the protection of the Earls of Moray and other nobles.¹ In 1472 the citizens of the burgh of Nairn entered into a bond of manrent with Lord Fraser of Lovat, and his heirs and successors.

¹ _Old Statistical Account of Scotland_, Volume V.

Adverting now to the more settled quarters of the kingdom, or the region extending from the river Deveron to the border counties in the south, which may be called the heart of the nation. In 1327 the Crown rents paid by the chief burghs to the Chamberlain were as follows:――Aberdeen £213 6s. 8d., Perth £160, Stirling £36, Edinburgh £34, Ayr £30, Rutherglen £30, Haddington £29, Dumbarton £22, Forfar £18, Inverkeithing £15, Montrose £13, Lanark £12, and Linlithgow £10. As indicated in a preceding chapter, the burghs eventually obtained feu-charters, under which they paid a fixed yearly rent to the Crown, and thus they at length acquired a perpetual right to collect and apply to their own use the rents, small customs, and dues formerly levied by the Crown. Aberdeen had obtained such a feu-charter in 1319 for the yearly rent stated above, but none of the other burghs had obtained such a charter in 1327, although Edinburgh obtained one in 1329 for a yearly rent of £34 13s. 2d. In July 1386, Robert II. granted a feu-charter to Stirling for an annual payment fixed at £16, and Dundee obtained one in 1365 for a fixed annual payment of £20.

In the reign of Robert I., what was termed the great custom consisted of the charges levied on the exports of wools, wool-fells, and hides. A last of wool consisted of ten sacks, and the sack of twenty-four stones; the last of hides contained twenty dacres, and the dacre ten hides. The charges on the exports of these goods were the chief source of the Crown customs during this period. In 1327 the customs of the following burghs stood thus:――Edinburgh £439, Aberdeen £349, Dundee £240, Perth £108, Linlithgow £14, Cupar-Fife £13, Inverkeithing £8, Ayr £3, and Stirling £2. These are small sums, but it has to be observed that lords of regality and church burghs had the right to export wool and hides at their own ports custom free; so the sums collected by the Crown officials only represent a part of the customs of the kingdom.

Before the year 1357 the usual rate of customs on exports had been half a mark on the sack of wool, three shillings and fourpence on the hundred woolfells, and one mark on the last of hides. In order to raise money to pay the instalments of David II.’s ransom, the customs on the above goods were doubled, and in 1359 tripled. The customs of the chief burghs for the year 1360 stood thus:――Edinburgh £1300, Linlithgow £356, Aberdeen £669, Dundee £485, Perth £437, Haddington £261, Montrose £226, St. Andrews £249, Inverkeithing £72, and Stirling £37. Taking for comparison the customs of the chief burghs for the year 1379, the following results appear:――Edinburgh £2285, Aberdeen £1449, Dundee £918, Haddington £617, Linlithgow £825, Perth £517, North-Berwick £269, Montrose £235, St. Andrews £143, Stirling £49, and Inverkeithing £34. At this time the produce of the custom of wool was nearly thirteen times more than that of hides.

From the customs for the year 1379, it has been calculated that the number of sheep then in the country exceeded a million and a half; while the same year, the number of hides of cattle exported amounted to 44,559; but we have no data for estimating what proportion this number of hides bore to the whole stock of cattle in the country. Comparing the customs of 1327 and 1379, in the former year the fleeces of 1,450,485 sheep, and 8861 hides were exported; this, however, included the exports of a considerable district in the south which was under English rule in 1379; and making allowance for this, it appears that the numbers of cattle and of sheep had increased considerably during the period between 1327 and 1379. This increase of the staple wealth of the nation is very striking, considering the unsettled state of the country, and speaks volumes for the energy and industry of the people under the most unfavourable conditions.¹

¹ _Exchequer Rolls of Scotland_, Volumes I. and II.

The customs from 1379 to the end of the century rather fell off a little than increased, but in the first twenty years of the fifteenth century the customs fell very low. This demands some explanation. After the death of Robert III., under the regency of Albany, it was an every day occurrence for earls and barons to ship the produce of their lands custom free, in open defiance of the collectors of customs, and also to abet the merchants who were under their protection in doing the same thing. Further, the nobles when they thought fit actually robbed and plundered the collectors, and even imprisoned them till they delivered up whatever balance they had in hand. And sometime the Earl of Douglas, his brother James Douglas, Lord of Balveny, Walter of Haliburton, Sir William Crawford of Haining, the son and heir of Sir William of Borthwick, and James Dundas of Dundas, took possession of the tron and granted a cocket for the shipment of the wool or hides themselves, and then received the customs from the merchants, and thus prevented it from coming into the hands of the collectors of customs at all. In the first audit after the death of Robert III., the collectors of Edinburgh deponed to £23 5s. 2½d. having been taken by violence from them by James Douglas, brother of the Earl of Douglas. At the succeeding audit in March 1408, the sum in question was carried over as arrears; and it was explained that Douglas claimed the sum for his expenses in setting fire to Berwick, and at the close of the account it was enumerated with other sums amounting to about £100, which had been forcibly taken on various pretexts. In the spring of 1409, Sir William Crawford and other persons had shipped twenty-three sacks of wool duty free in defiance of the custom collectors of Edinburgh. The Exchequer audit was held in May, and the same collectors claimed to be credited with various sums taken by Crawford and the Earl of Douglas――in all £708 2s. 1d.――as having been extorted by violence, and by the imprisonment of one of the collectors in Edinburgh Castle at the instance of Crawford. The auditors referred this matter to the Regent, and the result of the reference appeared in the next Edinburgh account, which was the exoneration of the collectors, and a promise by the Regent to admonish the Earl of Douglas against similar doings in future.

During part of the years 1411 and 1412 the Earl of Douglas was in Flanders. The account of 1412, however, showed a new score amounting to £43 11s., which had arisen from Borthwick and James Douglas, whose wool had been arrested for payment of duty, but they had broken the arrest and shipped their goods in defiance of the collectors of customs. The Earl of Douglas returned to Scotland before 1413, and no doubt he had received the Regent’s admonition; still at the audit of 1413 the Earl of Douglas refused to pay the custom on his wool, estimated at £69, and also carried off the whole balance in the hands of the collectors of Edinburgh, amounting to £634 10s. 11d. The following year the Earl’s “ministry” seized by violence the whole of the balance of £1339 5s. 9d. In 1415 the new depredations amounted to a further sum of £1254, and Douglas then produced a list of his “ministry” who plundered the customs under his authority, and these included the Earl of Orkney, Walter of Haliburton, William of Borthwick, James Douglas, Sir William Douglas of Drumlanrig, and the Earl’s own steward, John of Livingston. It further appeared that Douglas had directly taken from the merchants a sum of £240. The habitual evasion of custom greatly increased, and in 1417 the auditors pressed the collectors to disclose who the evadors of custom were, and amongst others they named Sir William Crawford, Lord Seton, George Lauder, and Richard of Winton. It appeared that wool had been shipped at North Berwick under a cocket, which the collectors had granted under threats of violence. The collectors also said that similar evasions of custom by many other persons occurred every day. Of the balance in the collectors’ hands a sum of £562 4s. 6d. was carried off by the Earl of Douglas, Haliburton, and the Master of Douglas. In 1418 the gross customs of Edinburgh had diminished to £1098, and of this, £378 was seized by the Earl of Douglas’s steward, John of Livingston; and the collectors again produced a list to the auditors of the habitual evadors of custom. The collectors of Linlithgow had a similar narrative of the evasion of custom. Year after year the collectors were robbed of the money which they had collected, and the chief criminals were James Douglas and Walter of Haliburton, two of the Earl of Douglas’s accomplices. On one occasion James Douglas seized the collectors of Linlithgow and carried them to the castle of Abercorn, and imprisoned them there till they disbursed the sum demanded. Sometimes these robbers of the revenue overawed the merchants, and compelled them by threats and imprisonment to pay their custom to them instead of the lawful collectors. Such were the acts committed, and such were the rewards which the Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, covenanted to allow the Earl of Douglas and his associates in return for their support of his demoralising government of the kingdom.¹

¹ _Exchequer Rolls of Scotland_, Volume IV., pages 80‒321,
Preface, pages 57‒64, 209‒212.

The great customs still continued to be levied at the same rates to which they had been raised to pay the ransom of David II. The highest yield of the customs on wool and hides in the reign of James I. was in 1428, when they reached the sum of £6912, but the average annual yield was about £5000. James I. imposed some new taxes. In 1424 he imposed a duty on the exportation of skins of the marten, polecat, otter, fox, hart, hind, roe, and doe. The duty, however, brought only a very small return to the Crown, and the most that it yielded in any year was £3 16s. 8d., and the average yield was about £1. The skin chiefly exported was that of the rabbit, though at Inverness the skins of the otter, ♦marten, fox, and polecat appeared in the custom accounts, while deer skins only occurred in the custom returns of Elgin. At the same time a duty of 1s. in the pound was imposed on the home-made white woollen cloth, and it appears from the custom rolls that about £3000 worth of this cloth was annually exported. A duty on the export of salmon was imposed, and the ports from which salmon were mostly exported were Montrose, Aberdeen, and Banff. The average annual yield of the custom on salmon was about £115, representing £920 worth of fish. All goods imported from England were subjected to a duty of 2s. 6d. in the pound.¹

♦ “martin” replaced with “marten”

¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages 6,
8, 13.

Subsequent to the reign of James I. the customs on wool and hides rather fell off than increased. In the reign of James III. the average annual yield of the customs was about £3300; and the average yield of these customs for the last five years of the fifteenth century was £3106. No doubt one cause of the falling off of the customs was that greater quantities of the native wool, and also of the hides, were being gradually consumed and used at home, as the population of the kingdom increased, and civilisation advanced.

The export duty on salmon was 2s. 6d. in the pound, and in 1478 it was ordered that salmon must be packed in barrels, under a penalty, each barrel capable of containing fourteen gallons. In 1481 the duty was raised by royal proclamation to 4s. per barrel. During the latter years of the reign of James III. the yield of the custom on salmon, at the chief ports where they were exported, stood thus:――Aberdeen, £135; Banff, £47; Perth, £29; Dundee, £14; Montrose, £7; Stirling, £6; and for the whole of the kingdom, about £310. The herring trade in some of the arms of the sea on the west coast, and in other quarters was becoming an important industry. The custom for herrings of Lochfyne was returned by the collectors of Irvine in 1479 at £10, and in 1481 at £34; from that date the custom was accounted for by the collectors of Dumbarton. In 1487 it amounted to £379.

In preceding pages of this chapter it was indicated that the Crown lands were of considerable extent and value in the later part of the reign of James II. A large portion of the revenue of the Crown was derived from the rents of these lands, which were partly paid in money and partly in produce. It has been approximately calculated that the revenue of the Crown in the reign of James III. amounted to £16,380, which is equivalent to about £5,460 sterling money. This revenue was derived from the following sources:――From the Crown lands, £10,600; from the sheriffs, £1,720; from customs, £3,300; and from burgh rents, £760. At the end of the century the Crown lands were still pretty extensive.¹

¹ _Exchequer Rolls of Scotland_, Volume VIII., IX., and XI.

It was noticed in a preceding chapter that a commercial treaty was concluded between Flanders and Scotland towards the end of the thirteenth century, and the commercial dealings between Scotland and Flanders and the Low Countries continued for many centuries. Edward I. endeavoured to persuade the Count of Flanders in 1299 to cease all trading relations with Scotland, but he failed in his object. In December, 1321, the Count of Flanders gave letters of safe conduct to Stephen Fourbour, burgess of Berwick, and James Will, burgess of St. Andrews, and their companions, to come, stay, and go, as their business might require, in the countries of Zealand, Holland, and West Friesland. In 1323 Robert I. granted in return that all merchants from Holland should have free ingress and egress to every quarter of the kingdom wherever they pleased to land, and he ordered that these merchants should be honourably treated, and allowed to dispose of their merchandise according to the usages and the laws of the country. A commercial treaty was arranged between Flanders and Scotland in 1427 to continue in force for a hundred years and one day. By this treaty the Scots were allowed to export in bales the home-made white woollen cloths (already mentioned) to any part of the provinces of Flanders “without let or hindrance.” It appears that quantities of this home-made cloth were sent to the low countries to be dyed and then carried back to Scotland; but during this period Scotland had commercial dealings with France, Bruges, Prussia, Lombardy, Spain and England, though her staple trade was chiefly with the Low Countries or Netherlands.¹

¹ _Scotichronicon_; W. T. M‘Cullagh’s _Industrial History of
Free Nations_, Volume I., pages 58, 76, 105.

Seasons of dearth sometimes occurred, and attempts were made to mitigate them by encouraging foreigners to import food, and by regulating the modes of selling. In 1454 it was enacted that strangers who brought grain into the kingdom should be favourably received and thankfully paid. There was a great scarcity of victuals in the country in 1478, and it appeared that foreigners from several nations used to bring victuals into Scotland, but the new duties imposed on their goods had prevented them from coming with their cargoes, and the people had been greatly injured. It was therefore enacted that all foreigners “coming with their victuals and merchandise should be honourably and favourably entertained, and have free entry with their goods, according to former use and custom; and the King to have the first and the best of their cargoes, next the lords of his council, and after that the remainder to be sold among the people.” This Act was repeated in 1482 with some additions. “It was declared that any person who bought goods from strangers and pretended that they were for the King’s use, and then sold them again, should be banished from the kingdom and all their property confiscated. Any foreigners in or out of the kingdom complaining of injuries done to them, should have immediate redress, according to justice, against any man in the nation. So, through the fair and honourable treatment of all strangers who come into the country hereafter, they may be encouraged to return, for the benefit and utility of the whole community.”¹

¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages 36,
41, 119, 144.

It is scarcely necessary to remark that the trading regulations of this period were sometimes based on curious notions. In 1467 Parliament enacted that none but burgesses living in burghs, or their factors and servants, should be permitted to sell or traffic in merchandise out of the kingdom, and so no person, save burgesses, could engage in foreign commerce. Even within the kingdom no craftsman was allowed to deal in merchandise himself, nor by his factor, unless he first entirely ceased to work with his own hands; and “no man should pass out of the kingdom on business, but a famous and worshipful man, having of his own half a last of goods, under a penalty of ten pounds.” The same Parliament enacted that no ship should be freighted by any of the King’s subjects at the ports of Scotland, nor from a foreign port, without a formal charter party, that the shipmaster should find a steersman and timber man, and a sufficient crew to manage the ship. If any dispute should arise between the shipmaster and the merchantmen it must be referred to the court of the burgh to which the ship was freighted. There were careful rules for the protection of the cargoes from damage. Every ship carrying more than five lasts of goods had to give one sack to the chaplain of the Scottish nation at the port to which she was bound, and every ship homeward bound was to bring one ton of materials for the church work of the town to which she was freighted. It was enjoined that no drink-money should be given to the shipmaster or his agents; and also that no shipmaster should sail his vessel during the winter.

The amount and the description of the exports of the kingdom have been indicated in the preceding pages; but the imports were various and miscellaneous, including many articles in daily use, luxuries, and ornaments. Throughout the period under review large quantities of wines were imported, and wine was very generally and freely used in the Scottish court, amongst the nobles, the burgesses, the monasteries, and at festivals of every description. The wines chiefly used were those of Gascony, Guienne, Burgundy, the Levant, and the Rhine regions; and claret, which was imported by Scotch and French traders from Bordeaux. The wines of Spain and Portugal were also imported from Lisbon, Bayonne, and other ports. The Scotch Parliament encouraged the importation of wine, and in 1431 it was enacted that those who exported salmon should sell it only for English money or barter it for Gascon wine. Olives, oranges, raisins, figs, and other fruit were imported in considerable quantities. The finer woollen cloths, black, brown, blue, green, scarlet, and russet; fustians, fine linen, silk stuffs, velvet, many articles of apparel and ornament, and iron, hardware, armour, and cannon, were imported.

The standard value of silver seems to have been about the same in England and Scotland prior to the fourteenth century. It appears that Robert I. made a slight diminution in the standard value of the currency, and the money of Scotland, by successive depreciation, gradually became of less and less value. Edward III. depreciated the English currency, and two hundred and seventy pennies was coined from the pound of silver instead of two hundred ♦and forty. The Steward, as Regent of Scotland, issued a new coinage even more depreciated than the money of England, and in 1355 Edward III. proclaimed that the new money of Scotland was not of the same value as the old, and should only be received as bullion. In 1366 the Scotch Council ordered that the money to be coined in future should be similar in weight and fineness to the English standard money; but a parliament, which met in September, 1367, resolved that the standard should be reduced by ten pennies in the pound, so that the pound of silver should contain 29s. 4d.; and from this sevenpence was taken for the King’s use, one penny to the “custos monete,” and elevenpence to the master coiner and his workmen, leaving 27s. 9d. for the people. In other words the pound of silver was coined into 352 pennies instead of 240, which was the standard at the beginning of the century. The deterioration went on in the reign of Robert II., and the Act of 1367 was repeated in 1385.

♦ “aud” replaced with “and”

As yet the only coins struck in Scotland were silver pennies, with their halves and quarters, and groats and half groats. There was no gold coinage before the reign of Robert II., and the gold money in circulation in the kingdom prior to this reign were coins of other nations. According to English proclamations of 1390 and 1398 Scots money was ordered to be received for only half its nominal value. In 1393 Parliament ordered the coinage of groats, half groats, pennies, and half-pennies, equal in weight and fineness to the money of David II., and a gold coin called a lion, worth five shillings; and at the same time fixed the value of an English noble at nine shillings and sixpence, and a Flemish noble at nine shillings and fourpence. No mint records exist for the period of Albany’s regency, and no coins struck by him have been discovered.¹

¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume I., pages 139,
144, 190, 207.

James I. in 1424, ordered that the coinage should be amended, and money struck of the same weight and fineness as that of England. In spite of this enactment, he further debased the coinage of the kingdom. Parliament in 1436, in order to supply gold and silver for the Mint, enacted that all exporters of merchandise should import a certain amount of bullion, while the export of gold or silver, coined or uncoined, was strictly prohibited. It is possible that part of the silver coined in the reign of James I. may have been native. In his first parliament it was declared that mines of gold and silver which produced three half-pennies of silver out of the pound of lead, should belong to the King: the King seems to have had some miners in his employment.¹ In 1428 Scots money was reckoned at half the value of Flemish money; the English noble passed current for fifteen shillings Scots, and in Flanders the English noble was current for eight shillings. A large number of Flemish, French, and English coins were circulated in Scotland, and these foreign pieces often became a subject of legislation.

¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages 6,
13; _Exchequer Rolls of Scotland_, Volume IV.

From the accession of James II., in 1437 to 1450, the amount of gold coined at the mint of Edinburgh was 48 pounds, which was struck in demys――a coin of the value of nine shillings at the time of issue. The amount of silver coined was 563 pounds, which was struck chiefly in groats, and partly in pennies and half-pennies. During the same period there was a mint at Stirling, and in 1442 and 1443 forty-eight pounds of silver were coined there.

In 1451 Parliament resolved to issue a new coinage, conforming in weight and fineness to the money of England. Eight groats were coined out of an ounce of silver, and smaller coins――half-groats, pennies, half-pennies, and farthings, of proportional weight, and each to be equal in value to the English coin of the same denomination. The current value of the new groat was fixed at 8d. A new gold coin was struck with the figure of a lion on one side and the image of St. Andrew on the other, clothed in a side-coat reaching to his feet; the current value of this coin was fixed at 6s. 8d. An attempt was then made to fix the value of the French and other foreign coins in circulation in Scotland. The master of the mint was held responsible for all the gold and silver struck under his authority; and power was given to him to select the persons working under him, and to punish them when necessary. In 1452 Parliament fixed the value of the English penny at three pennies Scots, and in 1456 the groat of 1451 was ordered to pass current at 12d.¹

¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages 39,
41, 46; _Exchequer Rolls of Scotland_, Volume V.

During the first nine years of the reign of James III. twenty-one pounds weight of gold were coined, and nine hundred pounds weight of silver. Among the gold coins of his reign there were two finely executed pieces, the one called the rider and the other the unicorn; their types were the King on horseback and the unicorn.

The copper coinage of Scotland commenced in 1466, according to the Act of Parliament “for the ease and sustentation of the people, and the giving of alms to the poor folk.” This copper coinage consisted of farthing pieces, four in the penny, and they were to pass current in payment of bread and ale, and merchandise up to twelve pence in the pound. The debased pennies and placks, subsequently issued, and called “black money,” consisted of copper mixed with silver. These black pennies and placks caused much discontent among the people, and in 1485 they were all recalled. At the end of the fifteenth century Scotch money was computed at somewhat less than one-third of the value of English money, one pound Scots being worth about 6s. 6d. English. There was a curious fluctuation in the value attached to Scottish coins; sometimes seven nobles Scots were said to be equal in value to one great pound of Flanders, at other times six nobles to one great pound, and in other instances eight to one, and five to one.¹

¹ _Acts of the Lords of Council_, pages 5, 17, 67, 143; _Acts
of the Lords Auditors_, page 34.

The coinage was a matter which often engaged the attention and deliberation of the Scotch legislators. From the commencement of the reign of James I. to the end of the fifteenth century, Parliament passed upwards of forty Acts relating to the coinage, the keeping of the money in the country, and the importing of bullion into the kingdom; the Acts ordering the keeping of the money within the realm, and the importing of bullion from other countries, were often re-enacted. The Scotch legislators of this period were completely possessed with the idea that gold, silver, and copper, actually constituted wealth. But the tendency to regard gold and silver, and even a paper currency as real wealth, is very strong in human nature, although in reality they only form one of the elements of the complex whole which constitutes wealth and power; for the essential elements of the wealth and power of a nation consist in the energy, the intelligence, the industry, and the rectitude of the people, as these characteristics have always formed the essence of wealth, and thus created power.

Having indicated the external relations of the nation in the preceding pages, attention will now be directed to the internal and every-day life of the burgh communities. The life of the townsfolk throughout this period was marked by striking characteristics, and also their relations with the important Crown official, the Great Chamberlain of Scotland, present a subject of much historic interest. Some indications of the functions and the jurisdiction of the Chamberlain have already been presented in a general way, but it is necessary to offer fuller details. Among the early collections of laws relating to the royal burghs there are two which present the form of procedure in the Chamberlain’s Court, and the matters which he took cognisance of in his circuit courts throughout the kingdom. One of these belong to the reign of Robert I. and the other to the end of the fourteenth century.

The procedure in the Chamberlain’s Court was very formal, minute, and inquisitorial. The Chamberlain’s precept enumerates those who had to appear at the court, including persons in and without the burghs; then the brief to the sheriff, which gave intimation thus――“The Chamberlain to the sheriff and his deputes, greeting: We command and charge you that immediately ye attach all strangers whose names the bailies of the burgh shall present to you in writ, placing them under safe and sure pledges that they shall appear before us or our deputes one or more ... to answer to charges against them and obey the law.” The manner of holding the court was thus――“all the burgesses of the burgh ought to appear before the Chamberlain――non-residents as well as residents――which ought to be called by their names, and those that are found absent should be fined by doom, nevertheless the suits should be called and the court affirmed. Then the bailies and the officer of court should be called. Then the bailies should be asked if they have any commission or not, and by what laws they claim the King’s burgh to be governed; and after that should be called all the actions and complaints, and thereupon a good assize of the best and worthiest citizens should be formed. Then should be asked the rental of the burgh, by which they gather the King’s rents, as well of built and cultivated lands as of waste. Then should be asked in writing the names of all the burgesses of guild, both those resident in the burgh and non-resident, and the names of the other burgesses by themselves. Then the roll of the suits of court should be asked. Then ought to be asked the names of the bailies and the officers of the burgh, every one by himself in writ.”

After these formal proceedings the real business of the court was commenced. The bailies were first challenged touching the discharge of their public duties, and subjected to a searching scrutiny. It was inquired if they had always been ready to do right and reason when they were required, according to the form of their oath. If they had treated the poor and the rich with equal justice, or if they had forbore to execute the law rightly through favour, hatred, love of persons, or taking gifts. Whether they had caused the assize of bread, ale, wine, and flesh to be held, as it ought to be; and every week caused the bread and ale, the wine and flesh, and other things, in the burgh to be examined. Whether they have executed the commands of the King and the Chamberlain. If they have sold or granted the freedom of the burgh to strangers’ servants, that they may sell with the burgesses, and use and enjoy the same profit. Whether they have caused the burgh to be properly watched throughout the night, or compelled the poor to watch and not the rich. “Also if there be a just assedation and uptaking of the common good of the burgh, and if a faithful account of the same be made to the community of the burgh: and if it be not so, by whom, and in whose hands the produce has come; and if the common good is bestowed in the business of the community.”

The sergeants and officers of the burgh and their duties were then taken up, and a number of inquiries were dealt with; such as that they do not present truly all the pledges in their hands; that they do not cause the rich to take the night watches the same as the poor. That in collecting the necessary charges for the King’s Justiciary or Chamberlain they do not always act justly, but spare some of their friends, and from others of the community charge too much; and whether with regard to such charges, they have accounted for all the money which they had collected. Whether they have inspected all kinds of bread and ale as they ought to have done, or for their own profit spared some, through which the assize may not have been well kept.

Queries addressed to the public ale-tasters followed, for there were then officials of this character in every royal burgh of the kingdom. It was asked if they had been always ready to taste ale whenever the signal was put out, or if they remained in the house filling their bellies drinking instead of standing in the middle of the street in front of the ale-house, to send one of their fellows with the beadle into the ale-house to choose which pot should be tasted, and then present it to his fellows, and according to assize they should discern upon it. Whether they always presented the defaulters before the bailies at the next court, or if they held a regular assize on the ale, or only simply said it is good or it is bad. A somewhat similar set of questions was put to the public pricers of flesh, as in all the royal burghs the authorities fixed the price of all kinds of meat. The pricers of flesh were then asked, “if fleshers bought any other than sound beasts.” Whether they had been always ready to act when the signal to price flesh was put out, “as well for the profit of the flesher as for the profit of the people.” If they had attended the King’s markets every market day and observed the buying of oxen, sheep, and swine, to be eaten; and after observing the selling and buying in the market by their discretion, then the price of flesh should be fixed by an assize, at which no flesher should be permitted to act. “And that they keep the prices, that neither for gift, prayer, nor gain, they do favour in their priceing.” That they should fix the price of these things as oft as they were required.

The fleshers themselves were challenged in the Chamberlain’s court on a long list of points. “That they sold flesh against the assize of the worthy men of the town, and before it was priced. That they bought and slaughtered beasts during the night contrary to the law of the burghs, and that they forstalled the burgh by buying in the country. That they sold flesh before the signal was put forth, and that they sold the good flesh to strangers and the bad to their neighbours, and that they denied the price when it was asked.” The bakers were asked if they had more men engaged at their oven than the law allowed, which was four――the master, two servants and a boy. And if they baked each kind of bread as the law of the burgh commanded, namely, bread of the finest flour, bread of the second quality, and bread baken of whole flour; and if they baked according to price, “that is to say, penny bread, halfpenny bread, and farthing bread.” The millers were asked if they had more servants in their mills than the law allowed, “to the scath of the King and the people”; and if they take smolts in the mill stank against the inhibition of law; and if they used two measures, “one to take with and another to deliver with.” The salmon fishers were asked if they kept in the middle of the stream when fishing, according to law, and if they ceased fishing on Saturday after evening till Monday at sunrising. White fishers were asked if they sold their fish at the bank, when they ought to sell them in the King’s market under the full penalty of confiscation; and also if they sold their fish in the night and in hidden places, and not in the market, and if they broke their fish and sold them in pennyworths contrary to the King’s laws.

The brewers and ale-house keepers were asked, if they had kept the price imposed by the assize of the worthy men of the town, after the buying of the malt; if they had neglected to have their ale tasted, as it should have been according to law; and if they have the proper measures――“quart, pint, third part, and sixth part, according to the King’s money, by which measures the people may be well served.” Wine sellers were asked if they sold their wine without having it tasted by the public tasters, and whether their own measures were unproved, and if they mixed good wine with bad and corrupted it. The malt-makers were asked if they mixed good and bad malt together, when they ought to make them separate, and then sell them at different prices. That they let their malt sprout at both ends and shot out all the pith of it, “when it ought only to chip and come at one end.”

The shoemakers were asked why they made shoes otherwise than the law had ordained, “that is, the horn and the ear are alike in length.” They made shoes, boots, and other things of the leather before it was barked. “They sewed with rotten thread, owing to which the shoes were lost before they were half worn.” And when they should have given their leather good oil and tallow, they gave it only water and salt; and they worked it before it was curried, to the great scath of the community.

The skinners were asked if they had kindly worked their leather before they made gloves and other things out of it; or if they had hungered it, by not giving it enough of alum, eggs, and other things. They sewed and worked with bad thread, and assumed the position of masters when they did not know the craft. The tailors made too much refuse and shreds of men’s clothes, through haste and for lack of skill. They made men’s garments otherwise than they were ordered; they sewed with bad thread, and often failed to keep their appointments. They assumed the place of masters before they had properly learned the craft; and “they worked on holydays against the law of God.”

One of the points into which the Chamberlain had to inquire, referred to the treatment of foreign merchants――“If there be any burgesses who hardly treated foreign merchants, coming to the burghs with their goods by sea or by land, by not keeping the laws nor making payments to them as ought to be done, or doing any other injuries to them, by reason of which such merchants wholly cease to come to the burghs and ports, to the damage of our lord the King, and the manifest ruin of the communities of burghs, on account of such hard treatment.”¹

¹ _Ancient Laws and Customs of the Burghs of Scotland_, pages
115‒124, 132‒150.

It appears that the matters treated in the Chamberlain’s court, and the laws and customs indicated in the preceding pages, were carried into practical operation, as the records of the burghs show. In 1434 the Town Council of Aberdeen enacted that no one should sell ale dearer than fourpence or sixpence, as it should be fixed, under the penalty of the confiscation of their brewing utensils, their ale, and exclusion from the trade for a year and a day. The head court of the burgh of Peebles in 1450 appointed four men to the office of ale tasters, and other four men to fix the price of flesh, and such officials were regularly appointed. In 1458 the head court at Peebles enacted that any brewers who broke the fixed price of ale should be fined for the first offence, one gallon of ale, for the second two gallons, and for the third three gallons, and for the fourth offence eight shillings. In 1471 the local authorities of Peebles ordered that the best ale should be sold at tenpence the gallon, or cheaper if the ale tasters deemed it right, and the second quality of ale at eightpence the gallon, and whosoever broke the price of the ale should be fined ten shillings. The provost and the magistrates of Edinburgh in 1492 proclaimed that no person in the burgh should sell ale dearer than twelvepence and eightpence the gallon, under the penalties authorised by the statutes of the burgh. In 1499 the local authorities of Edinburgh enacted that no one should sell ale above sixteenpence the gallon under the penalty of having the heads of their barrels knocked off and the ale divided.¹

¹ _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume I., page 392; _Burgh
Records of Peebles_, pages 111, 121, 128, 138, 142, 152, 158,
166, _et seq._; _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume I.,
pages 62, 75.

The price of wheat, meal, and bread were all fixed by the local authorities of the burghs. In 1492 the assize of good citizens of Edinburgh ordered that the price of wheat should be ten shillings and sixpence the boll, “of good and sufficient stuff,” and the price of malt eighteen shillings the load. The good men of the assize in Peebles in 1462 statuted that whosoever broke the price of bread or ale, from him should be taken twelvepence “for the buying of a clock.” At the same time the authorities of this burgh enacted that whosoever bought skins, wool, or white woollen cloth from unfreemen either in or out of the burgh, from all citizens found guilty of this offence, there should be taken sixpence to go to the clock. In 1434 the Town Council of Aberdeen ordered that no baker should break the price and the weight of the bread which the bailies had sanctioned; and whoever contravened this, should for the first offence pay eight shillings, for the second fifteen shillings, and for the third his bread should be confiscated, his person put in the pillory, and excluded from his craft for a year and a day. Every baker was obliged to have his own mark upon his bread that it might be known, and any one who neglected to put his mark on his loaves was fined eight shillings. At the same time fleshers, convicted for breaking the price of beef and mutton, or selling flesh before it was priced, were to be fined eight shillings for the first and second offences; but in the case of a third offence, the flesh was to be confiscated, and the offender excluded from his craft for a year and a day.¹

¹ _Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume I., page 62; _Peebles_,
page 147; _Aberdeen_, page 147.

No retail dealer was permitted to buy goods before eleven o’clock, under the penalty of confiscation, and neither man nor woman was allowed to pass out of the burgh to buy anything before it was brought to the market. Salmon fishers were not permitted to sell their fish till they were shown in the market, nor to store them, but bring them to the market the morning after they were caught, under a fine of ten shillings. If the bailies and local authorities of the burghs neglected to enforce these laws and statutes, then they should be reported to the King or the Chamberlain, “and each of them fined ten pounds without remission.” In 1441 the Town Council of Aberdeen, for the good of the community, enacted that no flesher, nor any other man, should be permitted to buy any kind of fish till they came to the market; and that no one should, in the future, dare to purchase any sort of fish, and raise a dearth on the citizens, till the height of the day was passed, under the penalty of confiscating such fish, and a further fine of eight shillings. The profit of a dealer in fish was regulated in this way: if a fish cost him twelvepence, then he was allowed one penny on it; if it exceeded twelvepence he was allowed twopence, and so on, for each shilling a penny. At the same time it was enacted that no man should buy more victuals than was necessary for his own house and family; if any one bought victuals to retail, he should sell it openly on the market-day. In 1442 the guild burgesses of Aberdeen enacted that no person should give more than six shillings and eightpence for the stone of wool; and if any one bought wool at a higher price, he was to be fined forty shillings for the common good of the burgh; the price of woolfells were fixed in a similar way.¹

¹ _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume I., pages 391‒397.

Many of the statutes of the burghs were directed against a class of persons usually called forestallers and regraters. These were the persons who bought goods, cattle, and food, before the markets or the appointed time for selling and buying, or who purchased goods, grain, fish, and other things, and resold them at higher prices and profits than were then lawful. In the burgh records of Aberdeen, in the year 1402, there is a list containing the names of ninety-five forestallers; they were often denounced in the local statutes, and sometimes severely punished.¹ Within the boundary of every royal burgh there was a complete monopoly of manufacture and trade. Further, some of the charters granted to the burgesses a monopoly of trade throughout the neighbouring or surrounding country. Thus the trading privileges of Rutherglen included the city of Glasgow; the monopoly of Inverkeithing embraced the burghs of Kinross, Bruntisland, Kinghorn, and Dysart; Perth had an exclusive privilege of trade and manufacture over Perthshire; and Aberdeen, Inverness, and Edinburgh, had similar trade privileges in their several counties.

¹ _Ibid._, pages 383‒385, 445, 402; _Burgh Records of
Edinburgh_, Volume I., pages 36, 97.

The acts and regulations indicated in the preceding pages were generally enforced in the royal burghs in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. At Aberdeen, in 1443, Alexander Lammynton was fined for selling flesh above the fixed price; and in 1492 three men were placed in the pillory, their pecks were broken, and each of them fined eight shillings for having pecks of too small measure. At Edinburgh, in 1495, twenty-two bakers in one day were convicted by a jury for buying and regrating French flour; and on the 8th of January, 1499, fifty “Browster Wives” were tried at once, and convicted for breaking the statutes relating to the brewing and selling of ale.¹

¹ _Burgh Records of Aberdeen_, Volume I., pages 398, 419;
_Burgh Records of Edinburgh_, Volume I., pages 69, 75.

The burgesses of guild possessed a monopoly of commerce in the burghs and outside of them. Acts of Parliament, the burgh laws of the kingdom, and many local statutes of the various royal burghs, all proclaimed the exclusive privilege of the guild brethren with regard to commerce. No one was permitted to work at his craft and deal in merchandise of any description. The guild were exclusively the commercial class, and they assumed the chief offices and mainly exercised the ruling functions in the royal burghs of Scotland; but the larger body of citizens naturally began to form themselves gradually into separate associations, with a distinct view to their own special interests. The craftsmen, however, were not specially favoured by the Crown or the Parliament as the burgesses of guild had been. The Crown and the Legislature frequently interfered to protect the exclusive privileges of the guild burgesses, but no early charter from the Crown or Act of Parliament has been discovered legalising the incorporation of the craftsmen. In fact, they seem to have risen into importance by their own energy. As we have seen, they were subjected to a severe and exacting system of inspection under the authority of the Great Chamberlain. At last, when Parliament interfered with the craftsmen it was with the professed intention of guarding the nation against their encroachment, a pretext often groundlessly advanced by governments.

In 1424 Parliament passed an Act which enjoined that in every burgh each separate craft should, with the advice of the town’s officers, elect one of their own number to be deacon of their craft. The duties of the deacons thus elected were to inspect the materials and the workmanship of the craftsmen, “so that the people may not be scathed by untrue craftsmen, as they have been in bygone times.” Whether the deacons had exceeded the duties assigned to them or not, in 1426 Parliament declared that deacons of crafts should have no corrective power over the other members of the craftsmen, except to inspect their work once every fifteen days. The sworn bailies and council of every burgh were ordered to fix the price of the materials of each craft and consider the cost of the labour of the workmen, and then fix the price of the articles produced, and proclaim it to the people. The town councils were also commanded to fix the wages of craftsmen who had to work on other men’s materials, such as wrights and masons. All craftsmen who undertook more work than they could accomplish were to be punished. In 1427 Parliament repealed the above Acts, which in some degree had recognised the standing of the craftsmen, and then denounced the action of the craftsmen as injurious to the people and the whole nation, and therefore the craftsmen were prohibited from electing deacons or holding meetings. This jealousy of the craftsmen continued to manifest itself for more than another century, and till in some measure the settlement of the different classes of the burghal population was effected.

The Acts prohibiting all craftsmen from engaging in trade or dealing in merchandise were repeated in the reign of James II., James III., and James IV. In 1459 the goldsmiths were recognised and treated as an established fraternity in an Act of Parliament, but the body of craftsmen were still regarded with suspicion by the Estates of the realm. Parliament announced, in an Act passed in 1493, “that it was clearly understood by the King and the three Estates, that the deacons of the craftsmen in the burghs were extremely dangerous, and might cause great trouble by the assembling and rising of the King’s subjects, and by their statute-making against the commonweal for their own profit, which deserved severe punishment. As those craftsmen assembled and framed rules that they should have wages for holydays, or if not they would not work; and when any of them began a job and left it unfinished, then no one of his craft dare venture to complete it. Therefore, it was enacted that all the functions of the deacons should cease for one year, excepting the power to examine the materials and the quality of the workmanship. Masons and wrights, and other craftsmen, who statuted that they should have their wages for the holydays as for work days, and all the makers of such statutes, should be indicted as common oppressors of the people, and the justice-clerk should proceed thereupon and punish them as oppressors; and likewise the makers of the rules that when one man begins a job no one else can complete it, should all be punished as common oppressors.”¹

¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages 8,
13, 14, 48, 234.

Still, in spite of this and other attempts to crush the fraternities of craftsmen, the custom of incorporating them gradually came to be introduced throughout the kingdom. The manner of effecting this was pretty uniform, and consisted in granting letters under the seal of the burgh court, called a “Seal of Cause.” There was some variation in the tenor of these, as some of them expressly prohibited all persons from working at the special trade but the freemen of the craft; they all, however, gave the craft the privilege of admitting new members, inspecting materials, making bye-laws, electing office-bearers, and having a fund-box or common good. Of course, in all of them, there was implied a strict monopoly within the limits of the burgh, as it stood at the date of the grant.