In the early part of the sixteenth century God's Penny was paid at
Waterford on ships' freights; and at Youghal, in 1611, it was paid into
court for the right of buying wines on board ship. As may have been
noticed in previous examples, the arles did not necessarily consist of a
penny. An ordinance of Berwick of the year 1249 declared: "If anyone buy
herring or other aforesaid goods and give God's penny or other silver in
earnest, he shall pay the merchant from whom he bought the said goods
according to the bargain made." But a penny sufficed. Noyes, the
Attorney-General of Charles I., is emphatic on this point. "If," he
says in his "Maxims," "the bargain be that you shall give me two pounds
for my horse, and you do give me one penny in earnest, which I do
accept, this is a perfect bargain." The impression left upon one's mind
is that the most important contracts as well as the most trifling
dealings were settled by the exchange of God's Penny or some equivalent
ceremony.
Now, it is evident on the face of it that the transactions must have
taken place in the presence of witnesses; otherwise a man who had made
an awkward bargain would have found it easy to escape from his dilemma
by denying that he had either given or received the penny. In early
times, before writing became a common accomplishment, and when, as now,
men might be eager to clinch a bargain without loss of time, it was
desirable in the interests of common honesty that such agreements should
be made in the light of day and in the face of the world.
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