FROM 1583 TO 1702. 8l 



been less than usual. As it is, the charge levied for relieving 

 destitution was equal to a third of the whole revenue, as 

 estimated in the Journal of the House of Commons on March 

 i, 1689 ; was equal in amount to the excise or the customs ; 

 or to the rest of the ordinary revenue, and amounted to a tax of 

 nearly 2s. %d. per head of population, this being taken at five 

 millions at a time when the wealth of the country was not a 

 fiftieth part of what it is at present. This was the result of 

 the quarter sessions assessment of wages and the new poor- 

 law. But further comment on these facts must be postponed 

 till I deal with the wages of labour. 



The most remarkable feature however in this table is the 

 exceedingly unequal distribution of the charge. Here again 

 I have taken the acreage and drawn up a table of the number 

 of acres, calculated to two places of decimals, in the several 

 counties which are severally rated. The general average is a 

 pound to every 56 i acres, or, taking the land-tax at 4^. in the 

 pound, at under two millions, to a land-tax of i s. 4*?. in the pound. 

 The poor-rate at the end of the seventeenth century was there- 

 fore a considerable charge. At the same time it is exceedingly 

 unequal. For example, the density of population in Wilts and 

 Yorkshire does not greatly differ. But the incidence of the 

 poor-rate is more than three times as heavy in the former 

 county. So with the northern counties of Durham and 

 Northumberland on the one side and Dorset on the other. 

 The poor-rate in short is, as a rule, lightest in what under the 

 monthly and other assessments are the poorest counties, and 

 as generally the heaviest in those whose contributions by the 

 acre are the heaviest. Now if we allow that there were, with 

 the exception of Middlesex, pretty well the same number 

 of persons in each house all over the country, it follows that 

 the pressure of the poor-rate at the end of the seventeenth 

 century has no relation to the density of the population. 



Two causes at least appear to me to have assisted 



inequality. If the reader will glance over the figures he 



will see that on the whole those English counties which from 



VOL. V G 



