A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



the wool, which, however, slightly improves in price during the I5th century. 

 On the whole the conclusion appears to be that the economic position of 

 Nottinghamshire relatively to the rest of England had not changed : it was 

 still a county where low prices ruled. 



Low prices for country producers and high wages for town work would 

 naturally tend to the continued growth of the larger communities ; and 

 there are signs that Nottinghamshire shared in that tendency towards the 

 increase of town life which marked the I5th century in England. 



The subsidy rolls for the i5th and i6th years of Henry VI are 

 noteworthy as being the first in which taxation is remitted in the case of 

 impoverished and depopulated towns. 93 For the whole county this remission 

 was to be 73 i8j. 7^., the actual payment made being 632 3*. b\d. ; 

 thus, roughly speaking, one-tenth of the whole tax was remitted. The way 

 this remission is allotted is striking ; at Nottingham only about one-eighteenth 

 of i he tax was remitted ; at Retford, one twenty-first ; at Newark, one- 

 thirteenth ; at Southwell, one-thirtieth. Again, a comparison with the poll 

 tax of Edward III 9 * shows that, in the main, the smallest proportionate 

 remissions were made in the places which were previously the most populous. 

 Bearing in mind that by 1434 Nottinghamshire was probably beginning to 

 recover from the depression that marked the end of the i4th century, it is 

 clear that its recovery must have been most marked in the largest townships ; 

 in other words that a movement had begun towards the concentration of 

 wealth and population. 



This change, which in many of its features was common to Notting- 

 hamshire with the rest of England, seems to have been brought about in this 

 particular county with comparatively little suffering. Nottinghamshire was 

 strongly Lollard ; a circumstance which suggests prosperity, since a certain 

 degree of comfort must usually be reached before men concern themselves with 

 intellectual or moral problems. There were, indeed, signs of unrest in 

 Nottinghamshire in the early i5th century. In 1410 it was noted as being 

 a county in which riots were frequent. 95 Earlier disturbances too, are 

 mentioned, but these were probably due to the depression it underwent at the 

 end of the I4th century. It lay quite outside the area of the Peasants' Rising. 

 This was no doubt due to the fact that the conditions already existing showed 

 some approximation to those demanded by the rebels. The rent of arable 

 land indeed was somewhat above the 4^. per acre which was proposed by the 

 peasants ; but the difference could not have been very great. Further, as has 

 been pointed out, a very considerable commutation of labour rents for money 

 had already taken place. In brief, it is probably true that the poorer agricultural 

 class in Nottinghamshire were in a condition somewhat above the average, 

 and that therefore the economic changes at the end of the I4th century were 

 less violent than in many cases. 



The increase of town life induced by these changes had its natural result 

 in the increase of trade, a considerable proportion of which probably went by 

 way of the Trent. The importance of the river in the i4th century appears 

 in the numerous complaints made of obstacles blocking its course. In 1378 

 a commission was appointed to inquire into the matter, and in 1382 persons 



* Lay Subs. bdle. 159, no. 69, 15-16 Hen. VI. " Ibid. bdle. 159, no. 27, 51 Edw. III. 



M Parl. R. (Rec. Com.) iii, 624. 



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