Acton Burnell, an English statute, so named because the parliament at which it was passed was held at Acton Burnell, a little village in Shropshire. The date of the statute is Oct. 12, 1283. It is the first statute passed in England enabling merchants to recover debts due to them, and is therefore often called Statutum Mercatorum, or statute of the merchants. By it the mayor or the sheriff" might seize and sell the chattels and lands of the debtor, or, if he had no effects, might detain him in prison until the debt was paid, feeding him meanwhile on bread and water if he was too poor to support himself, maintenance money to be added to the original debt. The statute of Acton Burnell met with much opposition from the sheriffs. The Jews were excluded from the benefits of this liberal statute, which was passed to encourage the settlement of foreign merchants in England. Barrington states that a similar ordinance was not passed in France till 1536, in the reign of Francis I. The statute of merchants is considered an epoch in the social history of the middle class of England, and indicated their growing power.