Alfred went further, decreeing that would-be traders were to bring before a king’s reeve at a public meeting all the men whom they planned to take with them up-country. The point, as the law makes clear, was to establish accountability. A trader was to be responsible for bringing to justice any of his men who committed a crime. This had less to do with regulating commerce than with royal concerns about justice and good order. It was often difficult to distinguish between a company of traders and a band of marauders, a lesson that the unfortunate West Saxon royal reeve who first encountered vikings learned firsthand. Traders, almost by definition, were rootless men lacking kinsmen and lords to vouch for their good character. As such they presented problems for a justice system that depended upon local reputation and personal affiliations. Like gypsies of a later age, they were welcomed for the exotic wares they plied, but regarded with suspicion and mistrust by the locals, who probably counted their livestock and children when they heard that merchants had arrived in the neighbourhood. Nor was this simply xenophobia.