11 deniers 12 grains; and there were also jurors, or "prudhommes," appointed to guard the trade, with power to punish those who worked bad metal.
At Nuremberg and Augsburg, those ancient cities so famous for their works in metal, as well as in other places, similar guilds of goldsmiths, regulated by statutes, existed; but as the instances given are sufficient to show the practices which prevailed on the Continent, and the means taken to prevent them, and which seem to have been generally adopted, this not being a treatise on goldsmiths' work in general, it will not be necessary to travel further.
In the year 1327, the Goldsmiths' Company of London was first incorporated by letters patent from Edward III., under the name of "The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Goldsmiths of the City of London." This charter,[1] which is in old French, states that the goldsmiths had, by their petition, exhibited to the King and council in parliament, holden at Westminster, shown that theretofore no private merchants or strangers were wont to bring into this land any money coined, but plate of silver to exchange for our coin; that it had been ordained that all of the trade of goldsmiths were to sit in their shops in the High-street of Cheap, and that no silver or gold plate ought to be sold in the city of London except in the King's Exchange, or in Cheap, among the goldsmiths, and that publicly, to the end that persons in the trade might inform themselves whether the seller came lawfully by it; but that of late both private merchants and strangers bring from foreign lands counterfeit sterling, whereof the pound is not worth 16 sols of the right sterling, and of this money none can know the right value, but by melting it down; and that many of the trade of goldsmiths do keep shops in obscure streets, and do buy vessels of gold and silver secretly, without inquiring whether such vessels were stolen or come lawfully by, and immediately melting it down, make it into plate, and sell it to merchants trading beyond sea, and so they make false work of gold, silver, and jewels, in which they set glass of divers colours, counterfeiting right stones, and put more alloy in their silver than they ought, which they sell to such as have no skill in such things; that the cutlers cover tin with silver, so sub-
- ↑ The Charter will be found at length, both in French and English, in Herbert's History of the Twelve City Companies.
