Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/314

 300 //. FROM THE llOO'S TO THE 1800'S Book of Bristol describes the differences existing between the Law Merchant and the common law, and treats generally of the law and procedure of merchant courts. ^ Similarly the White Book of London describes the special usages which prevail where the merchants are concerned.^ Many other towns also, as we can see from the reports, had the right to hold courts for the merchants.^ Some of these courts still exist. The Lord Mayor's court in London,* the Tolzey court, and a branch of it sitting in time of fair as a Pie Powder Court, at Bristol,^ the Liverpool court of passage,® are examples of survivals from a time when the Law Mer- chant was generally administered in local courts. The merchants not only had special courts and a special law, they were also differentiated from the rest of the com- munity by a special organization. In the charters of the towns there is frequent mention of the Guild Merchant. This was an association of traders within the town, and, in some cases, of traders living outside its precincts, for the better management of trade.^ It sometimes arbitrated upon mer- cantile disputes.^ But as a rule it did not exercise a regular jurisdiction. Its chief function was that of a trades union of a rigidly protective character.^ It was only those who » L. Q. R. xvii 246. » Munimenta Gildhallae (R. S.) iii f. 191 b. •Above. *Coke, 4th Instit. 247; Bl. Comm. iii 80. L. Q. R. xvii 237 n. 3. • Regulated by 56, 57 Vict. c. 37. Other instances are the Derby Court of Record; Exeter Provost Court; Kingston-upon-Hull Court; Newark Court of Record; Northampton Borough Court; Norwich Guildhall Court; Peterborough Court of Common Pleas; Preston Court of Pleas; Romsey Court of Pleas; Southwark Court of Record; Worcester City Court of Pleas. ' Gross, Gild Merchant, i chap. iii. " The words, ' so that no one who is not of the Gild may trade in the said town except with the consent of the burgesses,' which frequentl}'^ accompanied the grant of a Gild Merchant, express the essence of this institution" (p. 43). •Gross, Gild Merchant, i 43-50. As to the distinction between Gild and Borough see ibid chap. v. This distinction tended to become oblit- erated in the 14th century (p. 76). With other privileges that of having a Gild Merchant helped on the idea of municipal incorporation (p. 105). "The judicial authority of the Gild Merchant was at first very limited, its officers forming a tribunal of arbitration, at which the brethren were expected to appear before carrying their quarrels into the ordinary courts. The functions of these officers were inquisitorial rather than judicial. But in some places their powers appear to have been gradually enlarged during the 13th century so as to embrace jurisdiction in pleas relating to trade" (p. 65).
 * L. Q. R. xvii 238.