CUSTUMAL: CAPITULUM 33

To undertake the assize of bread, four honest and law-abiding men (two of them bakers, and two knowledgable in what is required by the city and country) are to be elected each year. In front of the community, they are to take oath to keep the assize. They are to buy corn, have it ground, sifted and baked into bread, which they shall sell to the populace; this is to test the accuracy and honesty of the processes. The bailiffs shall supply the money for buying the corn and having it processed. No baker may sell bread until the bread [of the assize] has been sold. This testing is to be carried out twice a year, after Michaelmas and after Easter. No measure used by bakers or by others may differ in size from the king's standard kept by the bailiffs. If any divergent measure is found it is to be permanently confiscated by the bailiffs, and those who use such measures are to be punished as the offence warrants. The bailiffs are to undertake an assize of wine and ale according to the law and their ballival oaths; they are to ensure that there are no false measures used in the city, and that all measures used by taverners or brewsters have been compared to the king's standard and [if accurate] stamped with the city seal of approval in the presence of a bailiff. No measure may be stamped except under supervision of at least one of the four principal bailiffs; the stamp may not be delivered to a sergeant except in the presence of their superiors.

[Parts of this chapter are not very clear in their meaning, and I have taken some liberties in rendering in English what I believe that meaning to be. "Principal bailiffs" referred to the city's chief executive officers, distinguishing them from the sub-bailiffs, or sergeants, who did the bidding of the executive. The reference to the two members of the assize of bread "qui melius sciverint facere quod incumbit pro communi utilitate civitatis et patrie" may be one of the typically vague (for the early fourteenth century) references to members of city council, or at least the ruling class generally.]