TAXES AND CONTRIBUTIONS. 157 



public service. The socage tenant paid his rent, and both 

 were thereupon quit of other payments. Hence the only 

 obvious sources of income, when the crown needed larger 

 funds, were property-taxes on personal estate, these taxes vary- 

 ing in amount according to the readiness and fulness with 

 which parliament acknowledged the king's necessities, or the 

 need there was to provide for the defence of the realm, or 

 for military expeditions, the apology for which was the main- 

 tenance of the king's authority. The fact that the nation at 

 large was called on to aid towards purposes which were often 

 merely personal with the king, is to be explained by that 

 characteristic feature of the feudal polity, the obligation, 

 namely, laid upon all the dependants of a superior lord to 

 assist him in the prosecution of his claims. 



The assessment, if we can take the taxations of the borough 

 of Colchester in 1296 and 1301 and the wool-tax of 1341 as 

 sufficient examples, was levied proportionately on the counties, 

 and determined by persons sworn to make a just valuation. 

 It seems that these persons were occasionally open to bribes. 

 Thus 95-. ic*/. was paid at Basingstoke in 1304 for this purpose j 

 is. d. to the mayor of Cambridge in 1312, from the bailiff 

 of Gamlingay; 4$-. at Letherhead in 1313. Similar instances 

 might be found. 



The tax varies from a sixth to a thirtieth. The contribution 

 from ecclesiastical fees is generally a tenth, and the amount 

 on an estate like that of Elham, the tithe of which is con- 

 siderable, is large, and apparently taken at a regular rate. 

 It is remarkable that the assessment was paid even from estates 

 which were the private property of the king. Thus in 1319, 

 the bailiff of Langley, then a manor in the king's possession, 

 and granted, after his deposition and death, to Isabella his 

 widow, pays 73*. 4^. as an eighteenth to the king's taxors. 

 Towards the latter part of the period before us, the lay tax 

 was regularly a fifteenth, the ecclesiastical a tenth. Payments 

 were often made in portions. Thus it seems that the Maldon 

 tenth payable on the tithe, and amounting to 57*. 5^., was 



