Note 4 — Chapter III · EARLY REGULATIONS AFFECTING FAIRS—ENGLAND.
Reading edition
In illustration of the early custom of holding foreigners living or trading in England responsible for the offences and crimes of other foreigners, the following instance may be given. In 1301 a person belonging to the house of the Spini, of Florence, was killed in a squabble with some other people belonging to the same house in England, and the guilty person having absconded, the officers of justice seized the bodies and goods of other persons belonging to the company, and also (luckily for the merchants), a sum of money collected by them in Ireland for the Pope, and some merchandise purchased on his account. He (the Pope) immediately sent a Bull to England requiring the liberation of the people and property arrested (“Fœdera,” v. ii., p. 891).