Judging by these parallels, the payment of God's
Penny was not less symbolical than its equivalent, the clapping or
clasping of hands.
URBAN
CHAPTER XVI
THE MERCHANT AND HIS MARK
In the course of the preceding chapter reference was made to the
illiteracy of our ancestors in its bearing upon trade usages. In the
present chapter we propose to supplement this allusion by drawing
attention to a feature of commercial life which was certainly influenced
by, if not actually due to, the prevailing lack of education. The
combination "Merchants' Marks" is so familiar as to suggest that such
marks were used by merchants alone. This was by no means the case.
Farmers also had their marks. "When a yeoman," says Mr. Williams,
"affixed a mark to a deed, he drew a signum by which his land, cattle,
etc., were identified"; and in Sussex, we are informed, the post-mortem
inquisitions from the time of Henry VII. to that of Charles II. exhibit
a large number of yeomen's marks--"other than crosses"--which were
employed as signatures. Masons' and printers' marks are further
varieties of the same mode of identification.
All these are distinctively trade uses, but the astonishing thing is
that, in Germany at any rate, marks were affixed, in conjunction with
regular signatures, by ecclesiastical dignitaries and secular nobles,
probably as an additional guarantee. They were also used on shields, and
in England were frequently impaled with the owners' arms.
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