as we
have seen, might not sell bread "before their oven," and to this we may
add that fishmongers might not take fish into their shops--they had to
expose it for sale outside. The object of such arrangements was to
ensure fair dealing all round. As Justice is usually figured with a pair
of scales, it may be taken for granted that the important question of
due weight did not escape the attention of legislators, and it attained
considerable prominence in 31 Edward I. (A.D. 1303), in which
year the statute De Nova Custuma was promulgated. This statute provided
that in every market town and fair throughout the Kingdom there was to
be erected in some fixed spot the Royal Beam or Balance, and that both
vendor and purchaser were to view the scale before weighing, to see that
it was empty. Prior to being used, the arms of the balance had to be
exactly equal, and when the tronator was weighing, he had to remove his
hands as soon as they were level. It may be observed that the citizens
of London refused to accept the "New Custom," stating that it had
always been the custom for all buyers of wares, whether archbishops,
bishops, earls, barons, or other persons, to have the draught of the
beam; but we have learnt by this time that a local custom was not
allowed to override the law of the land, and thus it is most improbable
that this protest, though it led to the issuing of two Royal mandates,
was long persisted in.

But the "New Custom" statute contained another provision--namely, when
once a bargain had been ratified, neither of the contracting parties was
to recede from it. If they, or either of them, took this course after
the weighing process, it would be bringing the Royal Beam into contempt,
and such profanation could not be contemplated; but the sacredness of
contract had been affirmed by local ordinances or customs before this
measure was enacted. A contract was held to be good when God's Penny, or
earnest money, had been given and received by the principals. As God's
Penny, or that which it symbolized, was the basis of all business, and
business was the life of towns, the custom appears worthy of notice in
some detail.

The _arles_, or earnest money, was given to a servant on hiring, as
shown by an entry in the Shuttleworth Accounts (printed by the Chetham
Society) for September, 1590: "4_d._, earnest money, was paid unto a
cook to serve at the next Assizes." Similarly, in February, 1592: "To
John Hay upon earnest to s