DURING THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. 75 



and counties of England, with the above exceptions according 

 to the table printed below. 



There was, beyond doubt, keen bargaining in the Commons 

 about the assessment/ The counties, cities, and boroughs, 

 which sent members to the Lower House, expected faithful 

 local service, as well as keen attention to such general politics 

 as might reflect on prosperity, local or national. Very er- 

 roneously perhaps, but very generally, the English people at 

 the latter end of the first half of the fifteenth century were 

 persuaded that the loss of the French provinces was a very 

 serious matter, and that England was not only impoverished 

 by the ill success of the war, but would be seriously crippled if 

 possessions held for four centuries by English monarchs were 

 permanently torn away. In the greatness of the sovereign's 

 estate lay the exemption of the subject's purse from importunate 

 demands. But while all were agreed in making the effort for 

 the recovery of the king's rights in France, the distribution of 

 the charge was a matter of very keen interest. It was a very 

 large grant. When Edward the Third in 1341 appealed to 

 the Commons, the value of the grant was about 81,500. But 

 the Commons were ready, had the king accepted the whole 

 of their offer, to present him with 91,000, besides such 

 charges as would have been incurred in equipping the archers, 

 perhaps in enlisting them. As it was, the cost in money was 

 actually, taking 182 days, 59,600. 



There may be some doubt as to whether the wool tax of 

 1341 can be employed to exactly define the distribution of 

 wealth in England a few years before the Great Plague, for 

 the price of wool varied very greatly in the different English 

 counties. I concluded however that the tax was a fair estimate, 

 because there is no reason to believe that it was intended to 

 be paid in kind, and there is evidence that in some places 

 it was not so paid, even though the parties paying could have 

 easily supplied themselves with wool from their estates. But 

 there can be no doubt that the assessment of 1453 was 

 made on an estimate of the supposed capacity of the counties 



