DURING THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. 83 



assessment of 1503 is the most unsuspicious estimate of the 

 comparative wealth of England, town and county alike ; for 

 Lincoln and York are divided, the former into the three 

 divisions of Lindsay, Kesteven, and Holland, the latter into 

 the North, East and West Ridings. The isle of Wight is 

 separately assessed, as are also seventeen principal towns, the 

 highest of these towns, of course, being London, the lowest 

 Bath. The order is as follows London, Bristol, York, Lincoln, 

 Gloucester, Norwich, Shrewsbury, Oxford, Salisbury, Coventry, 

 Hull, Canterbury, Southampton, Nottingham, Worcester, South- 

 wark, Bath. It should be observed that the Colleges of Oxford 

 and Cambridge, the several Charterhouses, Sion monastery, 

 Eton ard Winchester, are exempt. It is not however quite 

 clear that this exemption extends to such estates as they 

 possessed which were not within the precinct of College or 

 religious house as the case may be. 



We shall now, by looking at the table in which the rate of 

 the two aids is interpreted by the acreage of the counties, 

 be able to see what were the changes of these fifty years, during 

 about thirty of which civil war was smouldering or raging. It 

 will be found that the statement made before, that the war, 

 except in so far as its waste interfered with the activity" of 

 industry and the demand for commodities, did not materially 

 affect the condition of the country. 



The number of cities and towns assessed to the aid of 1503 

 is seventeen, and contains all those in the short list of 1341 and 

 all those in the longer list of 1453, one excepted. I am dis- 

 posed to believe that in 1503, the scheduled towns were the 

 whole number that it was thought worth while to visit with 

 a special assessment, that in short these were the principal 

 towns in the kingdom. But the quota of London is greatly 

 reduced. In 1453, * ts contribution was larger than that of 

 any county. In 1503, it comes twentieth in the list of con- 

 tributors. Bristol, which was the third city in 1341, and the 

 fourth in 1453, * s tne secon d in 1503, and by a sensible 

 difference over York. Norwich, which was third in 1453, 



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