Towns > Hamilton > 1878-79 - Naismith's Hamilton directory for 1878-79, including Bothwell, Blantyre, Uddingston, Motherwell, and Larkhall to which is added, A history of Hamilton and neighbourhood

MERCANTILE AFFAIRS. 95
find it recorded that "The beggars being convened,"
the badges were given to the persons therein named,
twelve in all, authorizing them to beg. The difficult
problem of pauperism, however, was not to be so
■easily solved ; and, in a few years afterwards, we find
again the same complaints of the increase of the poor ;
and their character seems to have got worse, for the
grievance is the " Allowing people to beg who can
earn their bread without the charity of others, and
allowing people to reside who are under the character
of thieves and resetters of theft, and entertainers of
vagrants and banished persons;" and the Council
remit to Bailie Semple, and others, to make up exact
lists of all such persons, and report them on the next
Wednesday.
MERCANTILE AFFAIRS.
Protection was the leading rule of trade. No
hides were allowed to go out of the town until the
town's tanner and shoemakers were first supplied. So
also the price of bread was fixed from time to time,
according to the price of wheat. Bakers were
obliged to put their names, or initials, on their loaves
— a practice still to some extent prevailing. Fines
were imposed on butchers for cutting and hacking
hides of the animals they killed, as well as for some
operation called "tawing and blawing" in killing
butcher meat. The same power and practice of
regulation seems to have been applied to other trades,
and where there was no law to warrant interference,
the Bailies and Council passed resolutions, which they
called Acts of Council, and which served the purpose
nearly as well as Acts of Parliament. As one
instance of this, amongst many, we may refer to a
minute of date 14th October, 1736: — "The Baillies
and Councill agreed to the following rates to be paid
to every horse-hyrer (in name of hyre) in manner