Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/547

 12 s. vii. DEC. 4, i92o.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

451

Charter, if, indeed, it be not earlier still, for no date is assigned to the enactment, the assize of bread was made an English law, and every locality had a police for making it effective."

Prof. Ashley ( 'Economic History ') says : "The public authorities. .. .with the growing trade of the thirteenth century, felt themselves bound to regulate every sort of economic trans- action in which individual self-interest seemed . to lead to injustice. This regulation was guided by the general principle that .just or reasonable price only should be paid, and only such articles sold as were of good quality and correct measure."

Farther on he says :

" Of all articles bread is that in the price of which the community is most interested. Hence it was the very first to be directly dealt with by the Government. .. .In limiting the price of bread, it was not attempted to establish an in- variable standard but only a sliding scale, according to which the weight of the farthing loaf 1 should vary with the price of wheat. Such an Assize of Bread was first proclaimed in 1202 coming in natural sequence after Henry II. 's reformation of the coinage and Richard I.'s assize of measures. In later reissues the various sorts of bread were distinguished, and the relation in which their weights should stand to ' Wastel bread of a farthing white and well baked ' was carefully fixed. The most important of these ordinances is the Assize of Bread and Ale attri- buted to 51 Henry III. This contains a scale fixing the change in weight of the farthing loaf for each variation of sixpence in the price of the quarter of wheat from twelve pence to twelve shillings. .. .The enforcement of the assize soon became part of the work of the ordinary municipal authorities. It is ordered by a statute of Edward II. that officers in cities and boroughs who by reason of their office ought to keep the assizes of victuals so long as they are attendant "to those offices shall not merchandize for victuals neither in gross nor by retail. At the end of the fourteenth century the maintenance of the assize, was added to the duties of the Justices of the Peace."

While Courts Leet were in full vigour, the charge to the Jury directed them to inquire if the Assize of Bread and Ale had been duly observed and officers called Ale ^Conners or Ale-Tasters were appointed whose cluty it was to keep watch to see if the Assize was adhered to and to present offenders to the jury that they might be dealt with .according to law.

At the date of Burn's * Justice ' (A.D. 1756) the statutes regulating the assize of bread were 8 Anne c. 18, 1 George I. stat. 2 c. 26 ,and 22 George II. c. 46.

. Under them the Mayor or Chief Magis- trate, and, where there are none such, two Justices shall from time to time set the .assize and weight of bread having regard to the price of grain and making reasonable Allowance to the bakers which shall be set

in avoirdupois and not troy weight accord- ing to a table contained in the statute of 8 Anne.

This table gives the weight of the penny loaf when the price of a bushel of wheat and the cost of baking is 2s. as follows : "white bread," 23 oz. 3 dr. ; " wheaten," 34 oz. 12 dr. "household," 46 oz. 5 dr. It then gives the weights of the different classes of bread for each rise of 3d. in the cost up to los., the weights at this latter figure being 3 oz. 1 dr. ; 4 oz. 10 dr., and 6 oz. 3 dr. respectively.

In order that the Assize might be truly set the prices of grain, meal and flour in the adjacent markets were directed to be certi- fied to the said Magistrates respectively by the Clerks of the Market. At the date of the third edition of Tomline's 'Law Dic- tionary ' (A.D. 1820) these statutes had been repealed by 31 George II. c. 29 and the acts then in force with reference to the assize of bread out of London were the last men- tioned Act, 13 George III. c. 62 ; 37 George III. c. 98 ; 45 George III. c. 23 and 53 George III. c. 116.

There had been several statutes relating to the assize and price of bread in London and its environs, but these had all been repealed by a local Act, 55 George III. cap. XCIX.

The Acts of 39 and 40 George III. c. 18 and c. 74'; 41 George III. Stat. 1, c. 16, 17, and 41 George III. (U.K.) cl. 2, contained temporary regulations to prevent the sale of bread till baked 24 hours. This is reminiscent of similar regulations during the late War.

Your correspondent will glean from what is stated above that " setting the assize weekly " meant that the Magistrates had decided to meet and fix the price of bread weekly instead of at longer intervals.

According to the 'N.E.D.' the derivation of Assize is from Old French Asise, Assise, " act of sitting down, act of settling, settle- ment, assessment, appointment, regula- tion," substantive use of feminine singular of (s)sis, past participle of asseoir Old French aseeir, "to sit at, sit down, settle, assess " ; Latin assidere, "to sit at, sit down to." The Editors say :

"it is not clear whether the intransitive idea o* ' a sitting ' or the transitive one of ' a thing settled ' was the original sense ; perhaps both were equally early."

WM. SELF WEEKS. Westwood, Clitheroe.