The development of public utilities in England in the 14th-16th centuries: source studies aspect

Throughout the 20th century, there had been growing interest in Russian studies in the study of the phenomenon of an English town in the Middle Ages and early modern times, including the problems of communal services and landscaping. However, certain plots from urban history are still not sufficiently explored. The article analyses the sources that make it possible to study the main measures of the British government in the field of public utilities, the activities of municipal authorities in solving the issue of maintaining the sanitary state of significant urban objects, its improvement. The 14th to the 16th centuries are the period of the study. The authors examined various types of sources. These include documents of a national character, local municipal documents, a narrative source – “A Survey of London” by John Stow. A wide range of attracted local documents allow us to talk about general trends and patterns in the development of the communal sector in the capital and in the provincial cities of various regions of England, such as, for example, the southeast – Southampton; northwest – Manchester; West Midlands – Coventry; eastern region of England – Cambridge, Norwich. The analysis of local documents makes it possible to draw conclusions about regional features in the development of this sphere of town life. The statutes of the kingdom, acts of parliament, as well as annals and chronicles of cities testify to the implementation of the decisions of the central authorities of the kingdom on the ground. These sources are representative in reflecting the issue of the development of communal services in England in the 14th to the 16th centuries, maintaining its sanitary condition.

Bishopsgate und die Hansischen Rechte in London

Bishopsgate and the Rights of the Hansards in LondonEvery Hanseatic scholar is well acquainted with the agreement reached in 1282 between the City of London and the North German merchants resident there, since it is the first known document which refers to those traders as the ’merchants of the German Hanse’. While the road leading to the agreement has been analyzed by Fryde, scholars have paid no attention at all to the role the document played in subsequent centuries, although they occasionally mention that the agreement required the Hanseatic Kontor to repair and maintain Bishopsgate, one of the seven gates of the medieval City of London. This scholarly indifference is unwarranted. In fact, the Hanseatic Kontor explicitly described the agreement of 1282 as 'the foundation of our Privileges in the City of London’ (1462) and was scrupulous in maintaining Bishopsgate. The City itself was, in retrospect, less happy with the agreement, and tried again and again to exact local excises from the Hansards, notably scavage (a tax on merchandise entering and leaving the City whose proceeds were earmarked for paving and cleaning the streets), only to be rebuffed with the argument that the 1282 agreement’s blanket guarantee of ’all their liberties hitherto enjoyed reasonably’ applied to scavage. However, the tables turned in 1418, when the City and its Sheriffs, under the tutelage of John Carpenter, from 1417 common clerk of London and the Compiler of the Liber Albus (1419), employed historical and legal arguments of considerable sophistication to dispute the Hansards’ contentions. After seven years of inconclusive argument before King’s Council (and increasing pressure from the City), the Hansards caved in and agreed (1427) to pay a lump sum annually to the Mayor and Sheriffs to enjoy their ancient rights in the City of London. Nonetheless, they continued to disburse substantial funds for the upkeep and. indeed, for a splendid renovation of Bishopsgate (1479/80) which excitecl the admiration of John Stow, author of a famous description of London, in the late 16th Century.