[Footnote 1: The "ancient" customs were on wool, woolfels and leather;
all other were "evil" customs. Holt, afterward C.J., in "The Great
Case of Monopolies."]

There is another interesting clause in this statute; I don't know
whether in this country so much as there, but it is in England the
almost universal custom of ships to have a dog or cat on board. You
never will find a coasting vessel without a dog or cat, usually both;
and I believe it is for this strange historical reason, as shown in
this Statute of Westminster I: In those days all wrecks belonged to
the king. (Pretty much everything, in fact, did belong to the king,
except the land that was held by book or charter, or such personal
property as a man had in his own house--all mines, all franchises, all
monopolies, even all whales and sturgeons that were thrown up on the
beach--the head to the king and the tail to the queen.) So all wrecks
belonged to the king. The result was, that whenever any vessel went
ashore the king's officers seized it; and naturally the owner of the
vessel didn't like that, because it very often happened that the
vessel was perfectly good and could be easily repaired and the cargo
saved. It is still a great principle in marine law that if one-half of
the cargo is good, the man who owns the vessel cannot surrender and
claim from the insurance company as a total loss; it is important
still how much of a wreck a wreck is. But in those days the king, even
if the vessel was stranded and could be raised, would seize it on
the plea it was a wreck. The man who owned the ship would say she is
perfectly seaworthy; and then would come the dispute as to what a
wreck was. Or even when the vessel was destroyed, a great part of the
cargo might be saved, and the owner of the vessel thought it very
unjust that the king should claim it all. So the Parliament of England