1. A 1353 statute establishing procedures for settling disputes among merchants who traded in staple towns. • The statute helped merchants receive swift judgments for debt. Cf. STATUTE MERCHANT.
2. A bond for commercial debt. • A statute staple gave the lender a possessory right in the land of a debtor who failed to repay a loan. See STAPLE.
“A popular form of security after 1285 … was the … ‘statute staple’ — whereby the borrower could by means of a registered contract charge his land and goods without giving up possession; if he failed to pay, the lender became a tenant of the land until satisfied …. The borrower under a statute or recognizance remained in possession of his land, and it later became a common practice under the common-law forms of mortgage likewise to allow the mortgagor to remain in possession as a tenant at will or at sufferance of the mortgagee.” J.H. Baker, An Introduction to English Legal History 354 (3d ed. 1990).
