[A1467/10/10]¹

Legislation: acts absent from the parliamentary register

Acts of parliament of the lord James III held at Edinburgh on 12 October 1467

Item, our sovereign lord the king and the three estates in this present parliament find his highness and the whole body of the realm greatly hurt and injured as the money of this realm has a lower course than that of other realms around us, and due to this the money of this realm is exported in great quantity and the realm has a dearth of the same. For which reason our said sovereign lord and his three estates in this present parliament have decreed and ordained that the money of other realms, that is to say, the English noble, Henry and Edward with the roses, the French crown, the Salute, the Louis and the Rider shall have course in this realm with regard to our money to the value and equivalence of the course they have in Flanders. That is to say, the Edward with the roses to 32s of our money. Item, the old Edward of which four make one ounce to the same price as the Rose. The Henry noble to 27s 6d, the French crown to 12s 6d, the Salute to 13s 4d, the Louis to 15s 6d, the Rider to 24s, the Demi to 12s, the Lion with the crown to 12s. Item, the old English groat shall pass for 16d, the new English groat of Edward for 12d, the spurred groat [shall pass] as the old English groat for 16d, the Borage as the new English groat [for] 12d, the old English penny [for] 3d, and the new English penny likewise. The groat of the crown shall have the rate of 14d, the half groat 7d, the groat of the fleur de lis 8d, and the white Scottish penny and half penny shall have the [same] rate as they used to have, and the striking of the black pennies is to be stopped so that there be none struck in the future under the pain of death. And that an immediate enquiry be made by all sheriffs and bailies of burghs if any such striking is made, and the strikers are to be brought to the king and punished as noted above. And the bringer of such stories is to be well rewarded for that as is appropriate.

[A1467/10/11]²

Item, because our sovereign lord and his three estates consider and understand that his highness and the whole realm in each estate would be greatly hurt and harmed by the changing and raising of the course of the money, as noted above, both in the payment of bygone debts and contracts, annuals, wadsets and lands set for long terms, customs and procuracies of prelates, and all other debts, unless it were provided in this present parliament by our sovereign lord and his three estates, [in order] that both the creditor and the debtor, the buyer and the seller, the borrower and the lender, the lord and the tenant, spiritual and temporal, be served according to the desires of the intents as expressed when the contracts were made, and so payment is made in the same manner that was intended at the time the contracts were made before this present parliament, so that, regardless of the changes made in this present parliament of alteration of the money for the common good of the realm, the same substance and value [will be] returned to the receiver as he should have received at the time this act was made, therefore our sovereign lord and the three estates decree and ordain that all debtors who owe any debts from contracts made earlier pay their creditors the same sums in substance as was intended between them before this act was made, in such money to the value as was current immediately before the making of this act, and proportionately in pounds and shillings of the reckoning that shall be in the future, to rise with the money such as it did before. And in such manner all annual rents, wadsets, lands set for terms, customs, procuracies and all other debts of contracts made earlier are to be paid in such money as was used immediately before this act. Item, for all contracts and buying and selling in the future to be made in the money according to the rate it shall have in the future or otherwise as suits the parties, and in addition [to be used] in all obligations made in earlier times with this clause 'of the usual money of Scotland', that it be interpreted and understood to be paid in value and substance as the money had course at the time of making this act in all manner, form and effect as written above.

[A1467/10/12]³

Item, it is seen expedient by the lords for the utility and profit of the king's highness and his lieges, who at various times pass or [take a] ferry with their horses [and] for the safety of the same, that all passages and ferries on each side of the water, that is to say Leith, Kinghorn, Queensferry, and on the other side of the water at Portincraig and the East Ferry, there be made bridges of boards or ports in ferry boats for the ease of shipping of the said horses. And that the said bridges shall be made within the next 20 days following the making of this act under the pain of forfeiture and confiscation of the boat and that the office of ferrying may not be used for a year and a day. And that the king's letters be written thereupon.

[A1467/10/13]⁴

In the presence of our sovereign lord and his three estates in plain parliament a worshipful clerk, Master Archibald Whitelaw, dean of Dunbar and secretary to our sovereign lord, in the name of and on behalf of the whole clergy, and similarly an honourable man, Richard of Kintore, burgess of Aberdeen, in the name of and on behalf of all the burgh commissioners, humbly requested and beseeched our sovereign lord from his grace that, if it were to happen that his highness in the future proclaims his money at a lower price and of less value than it is now proclaimed, their subsidies, procuracies, customs and duties may be taken and paid from the money to the value and price as they pay. Our sovereign lord, in the presence of his said three estates, graciously and heartily granted this request in all things as noted above.