104 SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS., AND THE 



barber, mustarder, wool comber, lorimer, woodturner, linendraper, 

 wheelwright, glover, fuel-dealer, old-clothes-dealer, seacoal- 

 dealer, glacier, brewer, ironmonger, and wine-seller. Two of 

 the girdlers unite the trade of mercer with their other occupa- 

 tion, and one of these sells verdigris and quicksilver. It is 

 observable that the number of tanners is large. It is true 

 that leather formed an important article of dress in medieval 

 times, though not, I imagine, tanned leather, but rather tawed 

 skins, that is, skins dressed with lime and fat. It is clear 

 then that Colchester had a special manufacture in the former 

 article, that is, in leather tanned by bark. Essex was, when 

 the area occupied by royal forests is deducted, a tolerably 

 wealthy county, its proportionate assessment being nearly 

 equivalent to that of Hampshire, a considerable portion of 

 which also was occupied by a forest ; and Colchester may pro- 

 bably be taken as a fair representative of a county town, which 

 besides being situate in the richer division of England, was 

 the seat of an active trade in that which formed an important 

 medieval staple. 



We are led to consider the proportion in which wealth was 

 distributed over the various English counties. The rolls of 

 Parliament supply us with the information necessary on this 

 point for the year 1341. There are numerous returns of taxes 

 paid, and it would be possible, after vast labour, to extract 

 from the Pipe rolls g the annual contribution from the several 

 counties, on such occasions as those in which an exceptional 

 tax was levied. But it does not appear necessary that such 

 an investigation should be made, since a single estimate of 

 the taxable capacity of the several counties in any one year, 

 at about the middle of the period now before us, will be ade- 

 quate for a general inference as to the distribution of wealth 

 in the fourteenth century. The plague which devastated this 

 country seven years after the assessment was, we may conclude, 

 too general in its incidence to affect the proportion settled in 

 the year for which information is supplied. 



8 These are the annual accounts of receipt at the Exchequer, 



