Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/386

 336 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE its own, had its own customs, its own set of penalties for offenses, its particular methods of court procedure, and its local legislation and ordinances prescribing how much jew- elry and how splendid raiment its citizens might or must not wear, how expensive and showy funerals might be, what prices shopkeepers might charge, what should be done with persons who sold short weight or used measures with false bottoms or peddled rotten fish. Cities sometimes, however, copied one another's laws as well as charters, and in such instances knotty cases might be referred back for decision to the courts of the city whence the laws had been borrowed. The laws of some German towns were carried eastward by colonists far into Poland and Hungary. But on the whole the town courts and customs added further variety and con- fusion to the chaos of courts feudal and ecclesiastical and manorial and royal which already existed. Town life, especially if industry and commerce and bank- ing develop extensively, requires a more elaborate system of The law laws than will suffice for persons living a simple merchant agricultural existence and not moving about much from place to place. Hence it was that lords early found it advisable to make special provisions for merchants. For the sea, too, it is necessary to have somewhat different rules of law than for the land. The law merchant was the customs of the Mediterranean Sea worked out by the cities of Italy, Spain, and southern France engaged in trade in its waters. Some of its provisions perhaps dated back to the days when Babylon had been the commercial center of the world. It later had influence upon the admiralty courts of England, and from it come those parts of modern law deal- ing with trademarks, the protection of a firm's name, agency, brokerage, and methods of bookkeeping. This law was also applied to a large extent at inland fairs. What was the external aspect, what were the material Appear- conveniences and comforts of a medieval town? medieval Seen from a distance the town as a whole, with town j ts wa n S) towers, and church spires, presented a very picturesque appearance.