WEALTH IN ENGLAND FROM 1583 TO 1702. 67 



the Plantagenet kings, Flemish weavers did settle to some 

 extent in England, but it would seem almost entirely in the 

 eastern counties 1 , and particularly Norfolk. Hence during 

 this period, Norwich after London was the principal town in 

 the kingdom, and Norfolk after Middlesex the richest county, 

 i. e. Middlesex, including London. But in course of time, and 

 as these newcomers were more numerous, the chief woollen 

 manufactures were established in the south and west of Eng- 

 land, and Norfolk became actually as well as relatively poorer, 

 till a new woollen manufacture of lighter fabric was developed in 

 the eastern counties. Still the English woollen manufactures 

 appear to have been of second-rate goods only, for the finer 

 and more costly kinds of cloth were of foreign origin. 



Now during the seventeenth century, I find seven assess- 

 ments extended over the whole kingdom, which will enable us 

 to discover how wealth was distributed through the several 

 counties. They are the assessment to ship-money in 1636; 

 that of 1641 for 400,000 ; that of March 25, 1649 ; that of 

 December 25, 1649 ; the proposed scheme of 1660 for ex- 

 tinguishing wardship in consideration of a permanent charge 

 on the land in the several counties ; the monthly assessment 

 imposed on the counties in 1672; and the seventh and last, 

 the assessment of 45. in the pound in 1693, the origin and 

 indeed the valuation of the land-tax which Pitt the younger 

 made perpetual and redeemable. In all these cases the area 

 of the counties given in the census of 1861 is taken, and this 

 being divided by the amount of the assessment gives the 

 number of acres to pounds sterling of taxation. 



These valuations, assuming them to have been made fairly 

 and according to the best judgment of the time, are taken 

 at typical periods. I have discovered indeed no assessment 

 for taxable purposes during Elizabeth's reign, nor during that 

 of James, so that my first contrast has to be between two 



1 In a register of tenants at Grantchester, 1354-5, 1 fad tncse obviously Teutonic 

 names Schnestat, Dirschafcr, Eigenhalc, Baumgered, Schapman, Ilenkcl, and 

 :auf. 



F 2 



