In this year the exchange was made at the Tower of London, of the new money, sterling, halfpenny and farthing, and Gregory de Rokesle, Master of the Exchange throughout all England.
... On the day of St. Stephen (Dec. 28), at the beginning of the eight and twentieth year [of Edward I], the crocards and pollards were proclaimed. (i.e., the crooked or polled, i.e. clipped coins of inferior value. They generally passed for one penny, but by proclamation their value was fixed at one halfpenny.) They were cried down throughout England and continued current only until the Vigil of Easter Day next ensuing: upon which Vigil it was forbidden that they should pass current. This money came from Flanders and was current in England throughout the land for six years, to the great damage of all the realm.
... His lordship the King ... had granted unto Sir Edward his son, to take custom of all things coming by sea into England and from England going forth, and such custom had been leased unto certain Italians upon yearly payment to Sir Edward of a farm of six thousand marks; the said Italians exacted the same custom of the citizens of London, and took sureties of them, in contravention of their franchises.
Wherefore the citizens went to Sir Edward, and begged of him that he would not allow such a yoke of servitude to be imposed upon them, in contravention of the franchises by the Charters of his lordship the King, his father, and of his predecessors, Kings of England, unto them granted: whereupon Sir Edward, at their entreaty, granted unto them acquittance of the custom aforesaid, giving them his letters patent thereon. The citizens, however, made court to him, giving him 200 marks.
... according to the custom of the City, all merchant strangers coming into London, were wont to be harboured, together with their merchandize, in hostels belonging to the citizens; and their wares, which are sold by the hundredweight, such as wax, alum and the like, to be weighed by the balance of his lordship the King. Other wares again, which are valued by the pound, such as pepper, ginger, brasil (i.e., a kind of wood for making red dye), grains, and the like, used to be weighed by various balances at the hosts’ places, or else by the basket of them, the buyer having upon every hundredweight four pounds for the draught; the commodity being weighed with the pin standing midway, the same as gold and silver are weighed. Afterwards the Italians, the people of Quercy, and the merchants of Provence (who at first however were but few in number), coming to the City with their merchandize, transacted business in a similar manner; but in process of time, when a great number of merchants from the parts aforesaid, who were extremely rich, had brought into the City a very great quantity of merchandize, in order that the amount of such wares might remain unknown to the citizens, they declined to be harboured in the hostels of the citizens, but built houses in the City, and abode therein by themselves, housing there their goods. And then too, weighing by balances of their own, they sold their wares contrary to the custom of the City; and even went so far as themselves to weigh by their own balances certain articles which were sold by the hundredweight, and which ought to be weighed by the King’s balance; to the prejudice of his lordship the King, and to the loss and subtraction of his pesage [duty for weighing]; and this they did for many years.