CHAPTER IX. 



TAXES AND CONTRIBUTIONS. 



THE information collected in vol. ii. pp. 560-565, is only a 

 specimen of the liabilities to which the owner of property in 

 the Middle Ages was exposed. Most of the accounts which 

 have been examined would have supplied similar notes, but 

 it seemed sufficient if enough were stated for the purpose of 

 illustrating the character of these incidents. Nearly all the 

 facts have been extracted from the records of estates possessed 

 by Merton College. 



Taxes were paid to the king, to the great lords, but rarely, 

 and to officials, for whose maintenance or services law or 

 custom sanctioned certain emoluments or aids. The taxes 

 paid to the king were either regular or exceptional, the former 

 issuing like a rent-charge from the estate, the latter levied 

 by authority of Parliament, or on certain occasions it seems 

 imposed, in defiance of the great Charter, at the discretion 

 of the crown itself, or in aid of its necessities. Again, the 

 taxes paid to the crown varied with the nature of the estate, 

 and with the body which imposed or allowed them. Lay fees 

 were taxed by the consent of the House of Commons, eccle- 

 siastical fees by the assent of the clergy in Convocation, and 

 lay corporations holding impropriate tithes were rated at the 

 proportions conceded by the representatives of the Church. 

 Faint traces of scutages paid to mesne lords may be found. 

 Again, the taxes paid for official services of a regular character 

 are two. These are the wages of the knights in parliament, 



