and in the county of Haverfordwest, wherein all fines and recoveries were to be enrolled. These enrolments were to be examined and signed by the Justices of Great Sessions. A large number of these "pedes Finium" are preserved in His Majesty's Record Office, and it is said that they are almost, if not absolutely, complete for some of the counties of Wales.
A.D. 1605.—In 1605, it was provided (3 James 1, c. 17) that no persons were to incur any penalty for selling Welsh cottons which were not sealed as containing certain breadth, length, or weight. It was also provided that no Welsh cottons were to be searched or tried in the water by any one except the buyer.
A.D. 1623-4.—The benefits arising from the manufacture of cloth in Wales were referred to in the preamble of 21 James 1, c. 9. It was stated that in this manufacture many thousands of the poorer sort of the Welsh people had been set to work in preceding ages, whereby, having free liberty to sell to whom and where they would, they were not only relieved and maintained themselves and their families in good sort, but also grew to such wealth and means of living as they were thereby enabled to pay and discharge all taxes imposed upon them for the relief of the poor and for the service of the King and the Commonwealth. The drapers of Shrewsbury had obtained some orders of restraint whereby the inhabitants of Wales were much prejudiced in the freedom of the market for the buying and selling of their cloths "to their great damage, as was verified by the general voice of the Knights and Burgesses of the twelve shires of Wales and of the County of Monmouth." In 1622, the clothiers of North Wales and Oswestry had complained that in spite of the order in Council for re-settling the market at Oswestry the Shrewsbury drapers still tried to draw all the trade thither, and the dissatisfied Welshmen requested the punishment of the chief offenders against their privileges.[1] It was enacted therefore that Welsh cloths should be freely
- ↑ See Dom. Papers, James I., p. 463 (1619-1623).
