CART HIRE. CARRIAGE OF MONEY. 709 



Bristol or Westchester were naturally more costly, as the 

 carters had to be lodged. 



There are a few entries of the rate paid by the pound sterling 

 for the carriage of money. In 1480, 1482, and 1488, Merton 

 College, Oxford, pays %d. in the pound for the carriage of various 

 sums from its Northumberland property. In 1562 the Treasury 

 sends a large sum to Portsmouth, but gets the service done at 

 a far lower rate, at 30^. the 1000. I conceive that in the 

 former cases the carrier undertook the full responsibilities of a 

 bailee, and that had he lost the money on the road he would 

 have been compellable to reimburse the parties who had con- 

 tracted with him. In 1579 New College paid ^d. in the pound for 

 the carriage of ^"50, but the account does not give the distance. 

 In any case, the entries are significant of the fact that in this 

 early time the machinery for the transmission of money from 

 distant parts of the country was in existence, effective, and was 

 taken advantage of at fixed rates. 



From the numerous entries quoted and commented on in 

 the foregoing pages, it will be seen that the cost of carrying 

 known quantities over measurable distances, when the distance 

 traversed was from sixteen to twenty-four miles a day, was 

 generally a penny a ton per mile. Sometimes it is \\d. and \\d., 

 occasionally \\d. and id. But these discrepancies are, I con- 

 ceive, to be accounted for by the prospect which the carrier had 

 before him of conveying something by return, and by the 

 probability that such engagements being known, the opportunity 

 of hiring the wains or carts for the journey to or fro, as the 

 case might be, would be communicated and made use of. The 

 more remote and disconnected the places were, the more likely 

 would it be that higher rates would be demanded, as, for in- 

 stance, between Henley and Oxford, where there is indeed 

 a road, and a road which certainly existed in ancient times, 

 but one which is difficult and hilly, and in a district which was 

 thinly peopled. It is possible, too, that the journey from Henley 

 to Oxford may have required two days. 



The last year of these cheap rates is 1542, though carriage is 



