Legal Definitions - bilanciis deferendis

bilanciis deferendis

Historically, bilanciis deferendis was an obsolete legal writ, which was a formal written order issued by a court or sovereign. Its purpose was to compel a corporation, such as a municipal body, a town council, or a guild, to transport official weights and scales to a specified location. This action was necessary for the accurate weighing of wool that had been licensed for transportation, typically for trade or export. In essence, it was a mechanism to ensure that the necessary equipment for official measurement was made available where and when it was needed for commercial transactions involving wool.

• Example 1: Imagine a bustling medieval port town like Southampton, a major hub for wool export. A group of merchants has secured a royal license to ship a large consignment of wool to continental Europe. However, the local municipal corporation, responsible for maintaining the town's official weighing equipment, has been slow to transport the heavy, certified scales and weights to the designated customs house by the docks. To avoid delays in their valuable shipment and ensure proper taxation, the merchants could petition the Crown for a bilanciis deferendis writ, compelling the corporation to immediately move the necessary weighing apparatus to the specified location.

• Example 2: A wealthy abbey in the English countryside has harvested a substantial amount of wool from its sheep and obtained a license to transport it to a specific market town for sale. The local guild in that market town, which holds the monopoly on official weighing services, is refusing to send its certified weights and scales to the abbey's designated collection point outside the town walls, perhaps due to a jurisdictional dispute or a demand for higher fees. The abbey, needing to accurately weigh its wool before it can be legally sold or transported further, could seek a bilanciis deferendis writ to force the guild to provide the official weighing equipment at the agreed-upon location.

• Example 3: During a period of significant royal revenue generation from wool exports, the King decrees that all wool destined for overseas markets must be weighed at a newly established central weighing station outside a major city like Winchester. Several smaller towns and their respective corporations in the surrounding region are tasked with contributing their official weights and measures to this central station to handle the large volume. If one particular town's corporation, perhaps due to administrative oversight or a lack of resources, fails to transport its share of the certified weighing equipment to Winchester by the deadline, a bilanciis deferendis writ could be issued against them to ensure compliance and prevent bottlenecks in the national wool trade.