PAY ON THE NAIL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4235, 24 January 1940, Page 11

PAY ON THE NAIL

HOW THE TERM ORIGINATED. <A correspondent of “John o’ London’s Weekly” states it is necessary to probe into English history as far back as the time of the Saxon invasion to discover how the curious phrase “Pay on the nail” came into being, fhe Saxons, after their invasion, found Britain in a half-civil-

ised state, and instituted laws for the regulation of bartering. One of them was that “if a merchant purchase anything among the common people, he shall do it in the presence of witnesses. vlf he cannot prove that he bought before good witnesses, but is found to have bought and carried away secretly, he shall be held guilty as if he had stolen it, and shall pay a fine of thirty-six shillings.” Apparently this law had the effect of making merchants and others very careful that every deal was lawful, and in many exchanges and markets pedestals were erected, on which the purchase money of each transaction was laid in the presence of witnesses. They were known as “tome stones” or “nails”—hence the term “to pay on the nail.” A few nail are still in existence, particularly at Barnstaple and Bristol. The stone at Barnstaple now stands in front of the Exchange, sit-

uated in Queen Anne’s Walk, only a few yards from its original position in Quay Hall. It was set up in 1633 to replace an earlier one, and the names of the mayor and two aidermen are engraved round the rim.