BUSINESS LIFE 45

traders; the rates of fines and the amount of
confiscations inflicted on those who broke the rules
of their guild; the terms on which strangers,
English and foreign, were to be allowed to pursue
their trade in the city; whether Sunday trading
was to be permitted or not; the duties of the
searchers; everything incident to the share of the
guild in the city's production of pageant plays.

The question of the terms of the residence and
trading of strangers received constant consideration.
The city had, in many respects, complete local
autonomy and rules were made with regard to
strangers who came to carry on their trades in
the city. From 1459 aliens had, by municipal
law, to live in one place only, at the sign of the
Bull in Coney Street, unless they received special
permission from the Mayor to reside elsewhere.
The guilds were ruled by masters and wardens.
They had their various officials. The searchers
were officers appointed to observe that the rules
of the trade were being carried out property.
They took care that only authorised members
pursued the trade of the guild of which they were
the officers. They vigilantly watched the conduct
of the members, and it was their duty to take action
in case of infringement of the rules and to bring
offenders before the Mayor in his court.

The wealthy trading class all over the country
did great and lasting work in founding grammar
schools and building or rebuilding cathedrals and
churches or parts of them. There was a social side
to the guilds. This appeared in the public pro-
cessions and the performances of plays, the
morality and mystery plays of mediaeval England.
There was also a strong religious side to the guilds.
The processions and plays were fundamentally