rs (makers of metal work
of saddles). Much blood was shed in the street battle between the
skinners and the fishmongers in 1340. There was a city ordinance
that no one except royal attendants, baronial valets, and city
officials were to go about armed. Disputes among neighbors that
were brought to court included the use and upkeep of party walls,
blocked and overflowing gutters, cesspits too close to a
neighbor's property, noisy tenants, loss of light, and dangerous
or overhanging structures.

In 1275, a goldsmith was chief assay-master of the King's mint and
keeper of the exchange at London. The king gave the Goldsmiths'
Company the right of assay [determination of the quantity of gold
or silver in an object] and required that no vessels of gold or
silver should leave the maker's hands until they had been tested
by the wardens and stamped appropriately. In 1279, goldsmith
William Farrington bought the soke of the ward containing the
goldsmiths' shops. It remained in his family for 80 years. A
patent of 1327 empowered the guild to elect a properly qualified
governing body to superintend its affairs, and reform subjects of
just complaint. It also prescribed, as a safeguard against a
prevailing fraud and abuse, that all members of the trade should
have their standing in Cheapside or in the King's exchange, and
that no gold or silver should be manufactured for export, except
that which had been bought at the exchange or of the trade openly.

Some prices in London were: large wooden bedstead 18s., a small
bedstead 2s., a large chest for household items 2s., feather beds
2-3s., a table 1s., a chair 4-6d., cloth gown lined with fur 13-
20s., plain coats and overcoats 2-8s., caps 2-8d., a pair of pen-
cases with inkhorn 4d., a skin of parchment 1d., 24 sheets of
paper 6d, a carcass of beef 15s., a pig 4s., a swan 5s., and a
pheasant 4s. There was a problem with malefactors committing
offenses in London and avoiding its jurisdiction by escaping to
Southwark across the Thames. So Southwark was given a royal
charter which put it under the jurisdiction of London for peace
and order matters and allowed London to appoint its tax collector.
London forbade games being played because they had replaced
practice in archery, which was necessary for defense.

A royal inquiry into the state of the currency indicated much
falsification and coin-clipping by the Jews and others. About 280
Jews and many Englishmen were found guilty and han