The Guild of Pepperers

In those days spice imports were often heavily adulterated or bulked out to increase their weight (see Death in the Pot). This led the Grocers’ Company to appoint an official Garbeller (from the Old Italian garbellare ‘to strain, to sift’) whose job was to inspect all spices coming into the country for what were known as ‘garbles’ – rubbish, dirt and other impurities. This generated considerable revenue from fines and also helped to establish the beginnings of modern quality control systems. The term ‘garble’ is still in use in the pepper trade today (see Pepper Jargon).