GENERAL DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 105 



The occasion on which this tax was levied was the com- 

 mencement of the long war for the French crown. This chi- 

 merical project occupied the best years of Edward the Third's 

 life, as the reverses consequent on the rupture of the peace of 

 Bretigni clouded his declining years. The necessary sacrifices 

 for carrying on the struggle were incessant during its continu- 

 ance, and the consequence of the taxation was eventful, if, 

 as is stated, the poll-tax led to Tyler's insurrection, for the 

 inheritance of Richard was saddled with the necessity of 

 waging that war in which his father and grandfather had been 

 at first successful, and ultimately discomfited. 



The fruit of Edward's claim has been a war between two 

 races lasting near five hundred years. It was almost in a spirit 

 of prophecy that the king, on summoning the Parliament and 

 Convocation, by letters dated August 2ist, 1338, announced 

 to the Archbishop of Canterbury that he was about to enter 

 on a <c profluvium expensarum." The inheritance of the worth- 

 less Isabella, a century later, the intrigues of another still 

 more infamous Isabella, were the earliest sources of that per- 

 petual hostility which has estranged England and France for 

 centuries, and will cripple the inhabitants of both countries by 

 the burden of an enormous debt for centuries to come. 



On Saturday the i9th of February, 1340, the Commons 

 granted the king 30,000 sacks of wool on certain conditions. 

 It must not be supposed that the tax was paid in kind. The 

 price of wool at this time, as will be seen below, was about 

 j^4 the sack in money of the time j that is, about ^12 in 

 actual weight of silver. It will be seen on turning to the table 

 of taxes, vol. ii. p. 563. i., that the tax was paid in money on 

 the Cambridge estate of Merton College 11 . 



In the table annexed it will be seen that an assessment of 

 a~ portion of the wool-tax is given for the several counties in 

 England, Cheshire and Durham excepted. The calculation 



h I may observe that the same facts might have been supplied from other estates, 

 but I did not think it necessary to give more than a specimen of the rates levied by 

 taxation. 



