Now what was this mediaeval
system of trading under which the free or royal burghs like Edinburgh
enjoyed so many trade privileges, and which placed so many restrictions on
the commercial activities of " unfree" towns like Leith. But
before we can answer that question we must know what is meant by a free or
royal burgh like Edinburgh on the one hand, and an unfree town like Leith
on the other.
In our story of how the De
Lestalrics became possessed of the barony of Restalrig we found that under
the feudal system there were tenants-in-chief, or great, or king’s
vassals, who held their land from the king. But the king kept much land—the
royal demesne or domain it was called—in different parts of the country
in his own hands, and, just as the great vassals built on their estates
castles or peel towers for defence, round whose sheltering walls villages
and towns gradually arose, so the king had castles like that of Edinburgh,
and under the shadow of their protecting walls towns also grew up. The
name burgh—a word which means a castle, a walled town or stronghold—-as
especially given to those towns that grew up round a castle, whether of
king or noble.
In those distant days, when
merchants transported goods from one part of the country to another, a tax
called toll had usually to be paid to the overlords of the baronies
through which the goods passed; and, in the purchase or sale of
merchandise in any town or market, another tax or toll called customs had
to be paid at the tolbooth of the town. A tolbooth, although it became
much more in later centuries, was at first simply the building where these
taxes or customs were paid, and for that reason Wycliff’s Bible tells us
that Jesus called Matthew "sitting at a tolbooth," and most
Scots towns have a Tolbooth Wynd, where the tolbooth once stood, as in
Leith, or where it still stands, as in the Canon-gate, Edinburgh.
All towns were either part
of the royal domain, and were for that reason known as royal burghs, and
had the right of trading anywhere throughout the land without paying toll;
or were part of the barony of some noble, abbot, or bishop, in which case
they were called burghs of barony, and had no such trading rights. If a
burgh rose a step higher than the burghs of barony, and approached the
privileges the royal burghs possessed in trading anywhere within the land
exempt from toll, it was designated a burgh of regality. Edinburgh with
its king’s castle was a royal burgh; the Canon-gate, which had grown up
under the fostering care of the Abbot of Holyrood, was, by the charter of
David I., a burgh of regality; and Dalkeith was a burgh of barony; but
poor Leith seems to have been the Cinderella of Scots towns, for as a town
it never was a burgh at all until it became a parliamentary burgh in 1833.
Burghs of barony and burghs of regality, while enjoying much more freedom
than Leith, were more or less largely under the control of their
overlords, and were, therefore, called "unfree" towns. As the
king could live only in one of his castles at a time, the royal burghs
were, to a very large extent, left to look after themselves. They had the
great privilege of self-government—that is, of choosing their own
bailies and making their own laws. They were, therefore, known as
"free" burghs.
The rise of these free
burghs under the protection of the royal castles, where merchants could
buy and sell and craftsmen follow their calling under the protection of
their own burgh Laws, was really the beginning of progress and
civilization in Scotland as in every other country. To carry on trade and
manufacture goods requires capital; and no man can gather capital or goods
and hand these on to his children if they are to be carried off by his
overlord at his death. No trading class could arise at all until this
privilege of inheriting property was secured, and this right was only
completely enjoyed in the king’s free burghs. When David I., therefore,
conferred upon Edinburgh the great privileges of a royal burgh he began
commerce in our district, and started Leith on its career as a seaport.
To-day any one may trade
freely, both at home and abroad; but in the far-off days of David I., and
for many long centuries after, this privilege belonged to the merchants of
free burghs only, and the country was divided into areas, in each of which
a royal burgh had the monopoly of trade. Indeed, these early Scottish
burghs seem to have been the only places in which trade could be lawfully
carried on, and from the inhabitants of "unfree" towns like
Leith, to whom they conceded any trading rights, they exacted toll, as the
trade guilds of Edinburgh did from those of Leith, for in early mediaeval
times no person could even follow a craft or trade outside a free burgh.
This was also the early law of England, and indeed of all Western Europe.
But as wealth grew and trade increased, these trade monopolies and trade
restrictions became very vexatious, and the Leithers, therefore, under
certain conditions, had to be allowed to open shops and sell goods with
the least possible interference with the trading rights of the royal and
free burgh of Edinburgh.
The district over which
Edinburgh had this monopoly of trade was the Sheriffdom of Edinburgh,
which stretched from the river Almond on the west to just beyond Levenhall
on the east. Beyond Levenhall was the trade district of the royal burgh of
Haddington, while on the west, across the Almond, was the trade precinct
of the equally free burgh of Linlithgow.
But this complete control
over the home trade was not the only privilege of royal burghs. They had
one more at least equally great—the sole monopoly of carrying on foreign
trade. None but the merchants of free burghs could engage in oversea
trade. The trading powers of other burghs extended only to the right of
providing themselves in the markets of the free burghs with the foreign
and other produce which these favoured towns had imported, and of
retailing this in their own districts, and to holding a weekly market and
a yearly fair.
Of course Edinburgh had (as
it still has) its weekly corn market and its Hallow Fair, held at the
season of Hallow E’en. On these market days in Edinburgh the country
people from the surrounding district, including Leith, brought for sale
the produce of their farms, their poultry,
butter, eggs, and cheese, but had to set up their stalls on the
opposite side of the street from those of the citizens. There is still a
lingering remnant of this ancient weekly produce market to be seen every
Saturday morning in the High Street, just below the Tron Church, where
toll is still charged for the stance as was the custom in the Edinburgh of
long past days.
Here, again, Leith appears as the
Cinderella of Scots towns, for she had no regular weekly market, and
certainly never had a fair, and, although she was for centuries the most
important seaport in Scotland, no Leither was allowed any share in the
overseas trade of his own town. He could neither export any goods to, nor
import them from, foreign countries. Such trade in our district was the
monopoly of the merchant burgesses of Edinburgh only.
Nor was any foreign produce allowed
to be sold in Leith. An old Scots Act of Parliament declared "that no
man pak nor peill "in Leith—that is, trade nor traffic in Leith. If
Leithers wished to purchase any foreign produce they could only do so from
Edinburgh merchants at the Cross of Edinburgh. Leithers might own or man
the ships as mariners ; they could be "pynouris" (the old Scots
name for a dock labourer), but they could not otherwise share in the
foreign trade of their own town. Such was the law of the land as enacted
by the old Scots Parliament. Such a law could only be passed in a
Parliament where the burgesses of royal burghs had representation and the
inhabitants of unfree burghs had not. It was unjust, although few, if any,
saw it exactly in that light in those times, for it supported the utterly
selfish policy of giving commercial privileges to the inhabitants of royal
burghs from which the rest of the nation were shut out. Such a commercial
policy ruled the trade relations between Edinburgh and Leith in some
respects down to 1833, when Parliament made Leith a separate burgh.
Before a foreign-bound ship could
leave the harbour of Leith its cargo had to be shipped in the presence of
Edinburgh officials, who were usually members of the Town Council,
including the Town Clerk, the Water Bailie, and the Dean or head of the
Merchant Guild, who closely inspected each bale of goods taken on board.
Only the goods of the merchant burgesses of Edinburgh were allowed to be
shipped, and the owners, the skippers, and even the passengers had to
receive a certificate (" the baillie’s tikket
") before they were permitted to set forth on
their voyage. The regulations regarding incoming vessels from abroad were
equally strict. On the arrival of a vessel in Leith its cargo had to be
landed on the Shore, and nowhere else. Here it was carefully examined by
the same city officials, who put a value upon it, for in those days the
price of goods was settled by the Town Council along with the merchants at
the Tolbooth, to which the merchants had to bring their cargoes, and not
by competition in the open market— that is, by the law of supply and
demand. This control of prices was very necessary in those days, when all
trade was the monopoly of the guilds.
The cargo was then transported to
the Market Cross of Edinburgh, for the purchase and sale in Leith of any
imported goods was, as we have already seen, contrary to law. At the Cross
they were sold to the merchants of Edinburgh, who, in turn, sold them to
the people of Leith as they had need, for "all sic merchandice sould
first cum and be presented to the burgh of Edinburgh, and thairefter sould
be bocht fra the fremen thairof." Such was the law of the land as
enacted by the old Scots Parliament,
which was no doubt largely influenced by the advice of its burgess
members, who from the later years of Bruce’s reign had been sent there
as representatives of the interests of the royal burghs. The other burghs,
including unfree towns like Leith, had no parliamentary representation.
The royal burghs thus kept
the control of all trade in their own hands as far as they possibly could,
and, of course, for their own benefit alone. It was a highly selfish
policy, and was carried out with the most jealous and vexatious
interference with all who dared to trespass upon their privileges. But
that it was not so regarded in mediaeval times is shown by the fact that
this same commercial policy prevailed in a more or less narrow manner
among all the nations of Western Europe for centuries. It must therefore
have seemed to them the one best suited to the conditions under which they
lived, and indeed, when we have learned something of these social
conditions, we shall, perhaps, come to the conclusion that the privileged
royal burghs were not quite so selfish in their trade policy as at first
sight appears.
The Leithers, although not
free from the same narrow notions where their own interests were
concerned, not unnaturally looked on Edinburgh’s regulations restricting
their trading activities as unjust, and did not hesitate to evade them
when opportunity offered. The merchant burgesses of Edinburgh, on the
other hand, who never looked at trade questions from any but their own
class point of view, held fast by the privileges the law and their own
charters conferred upon them, and were jealously watchful for any breach
of them by the unfreemen of Leith. There was therefore constant bickering
between the two towns; indeed, it would have been strange had it been
otherwise. It is to the narrow and selfish trade policy of medieval times,
therefore, that we must look for the beginnings of that jealous feeling so
long existing between Edinburgh and Leith, which left a legacy of
suspicion that has not yet quite died out.
Down to 1597, when James
VI. brought Scotland into line with other countries in the matter of trade
policy, no duties, except, of course, local harbour dues, were charged on
imports. Scotland’s import trade was therefore conducted on a free trade
policy. But in old-time Scotland they believed in making "the
foreigner pay" by charging him duties on what was taken out of the
country, that is, on exports. These duties were known as the "great
Customs." From the customs duties on exports was derived the greater
part of the royal revenue, and for this reason, if for no other, foreign
trade had to be so regulated that the king should not in any way be
defrauded of his Customs duties.
It was for this reason that
foreign trade was restricted to the royal burghs and their seaports under
the king’s own immediate rule. In all such towns officials known as
"custumars" were appointed, whose duty it was to collect the
king’s customs the persons chosen being usually two of the leading
merchant burgesses of the burgh. It was the duty of these custumars to see
that no goods were shipped to foreign countries without the payment of the
fixed duties, and only when these were paid did the owner receive the
"baillie’s tikket," which allowed him to proceed on his
voyage. Had foreign trade in that age been open to all and sundry who
wished to engage in it, it would have been impossible with the limited
means of those days to control the collection of the export duties for the
king’s revenue.
Even restricted as the
foreign trade of the country was in the interest of the king and the free
burghs, we find James IV. declaring in 1506, "We are greittumlie
defraudit in our customes through pakking and peiling (that is, buying and
selling) of strangearis (that is, foreigners) guidis in Leyth unenterit to
our burgh of Edinburgh." You remember that all foreign imports
immediately they were landed on the Shore were transported to Edinburgh,
and there only could Leithers purchase them, not from the "strangearis"
who brought them, but only from the merchants of the city who bought them.
Now, judged by the conditions under which we live today, such a law seems
harsh and tyrannical; but it was not really so except in the high-handed
way in which it was sometimes enforced, as the Leithers knew very well,
although they might do their best to evade it.
