Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/251

 7. SCRUTTON: ROMAN LAW INFLUENCE 237 5. Roman Law in the Lam Merchant From the earliest times a summary mode of procedure appears to have existed, in which a kind of rough and ready justice was exercised in mercantile disputes according to the usages of commerce. As early as Bracton we find recognition of this ; the solemn order of attachments need not be ob- served in such cases " propter privilegium et favor em mer- catorum; " ^ and a summons with less than 15 days' notice may be adjudged lawful, " propter personas qui celerem de- bent habere justitiam, sicut sunt mercatores, quibus exhibe- tur justitia pepoudrous." ^ This " Court of Pipowder " is also mentioned in the Domesday of Ipswich, where besides the " pleas yoven to the lawe maryne," there are also " pleas be- tween straunge folk that men clepeth pypoudrus, shuldene be pleted from day to day." ^ The Court of Pipowders in 1478 was a Court that sat from hour to hour administering jus- tice to dealers in time of fair ; * according to Coke, it was to secure " speedy justice done for advancement of trade," and there might be such a Court by custom without either fair or market.^ Malynes, in his curious and interesting work on the Lex Mercatoria, speaks of " the law Merchant, that is accord- ing to the customs of merchants . . . which concerning traffic and commerce are permanent and constant." ^ Coke states that ^ " the merchant strangers have a speedy recovery for their debts and other duties, per legem mercatoriam, which is a part of the Common Law." The Court of the Mayor of the Staple, he says, ^ " is guided by the Law Merchant . . . merchant strangers may sue before him according to the law merchant or at the Common law. . . . This Court is the Court in the Staple Market, and it was oftentimes kept at Calais, and sometimes at Bruges, Antwerp and Middlebro', "■ Br. f. 444. still on the foot, or before it could be shaken off. •Coke, iv. 272. •Pub. 1622, 3rd Edit. 1686; pp. 2, 3. •Coke, iv. 237, 238.
 * Br. f. 334: so called because justice was done while the dust was
 * Black Book of Admiralty, ed. Twiss. Rolls Series, ii. 23.
 * 17 Edw. IV. c. 2.
 * Coke, ii. 58; see i. 11, b.