Touching them that take outrageous toll, contrary to the common custom
of the realm, in market towns, it is provided that if any do so in the
king's town, which is let in fee-farm, the king shall seize into his
own hand the franchise of the market; and if it be another's town, and
the same be done by the lord of the town, the king shall do in like
manner; and if it be done by a bailiff or any mean officer, without the
commandment of his lord, he shall restore to the plaintiff as much more
for the outrageous taking as he had of him, if he had carried away his
toll, and shall have forty days' imprisonment.
_Statute, 3 Edward I._, cap. 31.
Tolls were not necessarily levied. In later mediæval times it was held
illegal for the holder of a market to exact them unless he could prove
his prescriptive right to do so, or unless, in the case of a market
erected by a charter, such right had been explicitly granted.
1233. Because it has been certified to the king, by an enquiry made in
accordance with his precept, that in the fair of Shalford, which is
held there every year on the feast of the Assumption of Blessed Mary,
it has never been customary to take toll or custom, except at the time
when John of Gatesden was sheriff of Surrey, who of his own will ruled
that toll should there be taken: therefore the sheriff of Surrey is
commanded that he take no custom in that fair nor suffer it to be
taken, and that he cause public proclamation and prohibition to be
made, that in future none take toll on the occasion of that fair.
_Cal. of Close_, 1231-5, 245.
Stallkeepers made payments called _stallage_ for the sites they
occupied to the holder of the market or fair.
1331. The profits of the bailey of Lincoln, to wit of vacant plots...,
and stallage in the said vacant plots in the times of fairs and
markets.
_Cal. of Close_, 1330-3, 255.
The analogous payment of _piccage_ was for the breaking of the ground
in order to erect stalls.