st of the busy trading the officials of the
lord formed a court which sat continually and followed a summary
procedure. This was known as a court of "pie-powder," that is _pied
poudre_, or _dusty foot_, so called, no doubt, from its readiness to
hear the suits of merchants and wayfarers, as they were, without
formality or delay. At this court a great variety of cases came up,
such as disputes as to debts, failure to perform contracts of sale or
purchase, false measurements, theft, assault, defamation, and
misdemeanors of all kinds. Sometimes the court decided offhand,
sometimes compurgation was allowed immediately or on the next day,
sometimes juries were formed and gave decisions. The law which the
court of pie-powder administered was often referred to as the "law
merchant," a somewhat less rigid system than the common law, and one
whose rules were generally defined, in these courts and in the king's
courts, by juries chosen from among the merchants themselves.

At these fairs, even more than in the towns, merchants from a distance
gathered to buy the products peculiar to the part of England where the
fair was held, and to sell their own articles of importation or
production. The large fairs furnished by far the best markets of the
time. We find mention made in the records of one court of pie-powder
of men from a dozen or twenty English towns, from Bordeaux, and from
Rouen. The men who came from any one town, whether of England or the
Continent, acted and were treated as common members of the gild
merchant of that town, as forming a sort of community, and being to a
certain extent responsible for one another. They did their buying and
selling, it is true, separately, but if disputes arose, the whole
group were held responsible for each member. For example, the
following entry was made in the roll of the fair of St. Ives in the
year 1275: "William of Fleetbridge and Anne his wife complain of
Thomas Coventry of Leicester for unjustly withholding from them 55_s._
2-1/2_d._ for a sack of wool.... Elias is ordered to attach the
community of Leicester to answer ... and of the said community Allan
Parker, Adam Nose and Robert Howell are attached by three bundles of
ox-hides, three hundred bundles of sheep skins and six sacks of wool."

*20. Trade Relations between Towns.*--The fairs were only temporary
selling places. When the time for which the fair was held had expired
the booths were removed, the merchants returned to t