ABSTRACT
The twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw a steady expansion in the number, size and trade of towns which were typically sited on ancient Roman settle ments, around castles and abbeys, at the junctions of highways and at ports. The aim of their inhabitants became to free themselves from the authority of their lord, so that they could control the farm of the revenues, the firma burgi, which consisted principally of the tolls of the market, the profits of the court and the rents from the burgages. They could then acquire their own corporate seal and issue their own documents. In most cases a town guild, having found from its lord the value of his rights, sought to pay him a yearly rent to acquire them.
