FROM 1583 TO 1702. 69 



double that of Oxfordshire, in that of Charles, Middlesex is 

 more than eleven times wealthier than Hertfordshire. It 

 should be added that a very serious fire had occurred in 

 London just before the assessment of i53> and that it might 

 be fairer to take another standard, for instance the valuation 

 of 1453, w hen the assessment of Middlesex with London is, 

 acre for acre, almost exactly 7-7 times higher than that of 

 Oxfordshire, the next in order. Now it is plain that the dif- 

 ference between the old and the new proportion represents 

 the progress which London had made. The assessment of 

 1636 does not separate, as the others do, the contributions 

 payable by certain towns, as distinct from the counties in 

 which they are situate. 



Oxford was in 1503 the most opulent of the counties, and 

 next to it Norfolk. In 1636, Oxford is the i7th, Norfolk the 

 25th. Herts was the I4th in 1503, it is the second in 1636: 

 and generally, the home counties north of the Thames are 

 those which show the greatest progress in opulence. Now I 

 have little doubt that this growth is due to agricultural im- 

 provements. But the midland and southern counties lag 

 behind, and do so steadily. Take for example Kent. In 1341 

 it is the fifth county, in 1453 t ^ le tenth, in 1503 it is equal to 

 Northampton, and is the twelfth or thirteenth. In 1636, it 

 is the fourteenth. I think that this comparative decline is due 

 to the falling-off of trade in the Kentish seaports. On the 

 other hand, Somerset, twenty-second in 1341, is fifteenth in 

 1453, sixteenth in 1503, ninth in 1636 ; positions which indicate 

 the growing fortunes of Bristol. But of these several counties, 

 the fortunes of Oxfordshire are the most curious. It is third in 

 i _}4i, second in 1453 an< ^ I 53t an ^ has sunk to the seventeenth 

 place in 1 636 ; its old rival Norfolk, for whose decline an obvious 

 reason, in the loss of the almost exclusive cloth manufacture, 

 can be given, is twenty-fifth. I know nothing in the history 

 of the county vvhich will explain that which we shall hereafter 

 find to have been temporary, for Oxford recovers to some 

 extent its former position. 



