leges not enumerated in the above list. The first charter
of a town was apt to be vague and inadequate, but from time to time a
new charter was obtained giving additional privileges and defining the
old rights more clearly. Nor had all those who dwelt within the town
limits equal participation in its advantages. These were usually
restricted to those who were known as citizens or burgesses; full
citizenship depending primarily on the possession of a house and land
within the town limits. In addition to the burgesses there were
usually some inhabitants of the town--strangers, Jews, fugitive
villains from the rural villages, or perhaps only poorer natives of
the town--who did not share in these privileges. Those who did possess
all civil rights of the townsmen were in many ways superior in
condition to men in the country. In addition to the advantages of the
municipal organization mentioned above, all burgesses were personally
free, there was entire exemption from the vexatious petty payments of
the rural manors, and burgage tenure was thee nearest to actual land
ownership existent during the Middle Ages.

[Illustration: Charter of Henry II to the Borough of Nottingham.
(_Records of Borough of Nottingham_. Published by the Corporation.)]

*15. The Gild Merchant.*--The town was most clearly marked off from the
country by the occupations by which its people earned their living.
These were, in the first place, trading; secondly, manufacturing or
handicrafts. Agriculture of course existed also, since most townsmen
possessed some lands lying outside of the enclosed portions of the
town. On these they raised crops and pastured their cattle. Of these
varied occupations, however, it was trade which gave character and,
indeed, existence itself to the town. Foreign goods were brought to
the towns from abroad for sale, the surplus products of rural manors
found their way there for marketing; the products of one part of the
country which were needed in other parts were sought for and purchased
in the towns. Men also sold the products of their own labor, not only
food products, such as bread, meat, and fish, but also objects of
manufacture, as cloth, arms, leather, and goods made of wood, leather,
or metal. For the protection and regulation of this trade the
organization known as the gild merchant had grown up in each town.
The gild merchant seems to have included all of the population of the
town who habitually engaged in the busi