634 '^' ^' M'^o. 



and 45 gallies, great and fmall, manned by 1 1 ,000 feamen * : and there 

 were 1 6,000 carpenters employed in the dock-yards. The mint of 

 Venice coined annually 1,000,000 of ducats in gold, 200,000 pieces of 

 fjlver of various fizes, and 800,000 foldi. Every year 500,000 ducats 

 were fent into Syria and Egypt, and 100,000 ducats to England (the 

 balance of the Venetian trade with England being thus one fifth of the 

 Turn paid for the oriental produdions, for it may be obferved that the 

 Venetians affuredly carried a great deal of merchandize to England, and 

 probably very little to Syria and Egypt). The Venetians received an- 

 nually from the Florentines 16,000 pieces of cloth, from middling qual- 

 ity to the very fineft, which they fent to Apulia, Sicily, Barbary, Syria, 

 Cyprus, Rhodes, Egypt, Romania, Candia, and the Morea through Iftria. 

 Though the Florentines fold fo much cloth to Venice, they alfo carried 

 thither 7,000 ducats weekly, and purchafed French and Catalonian 

 wool, crimfon, and grain, filk, gold and iilver thread (or wire, ' fdati'), 

 wax, fugar, and violins. The value of the houfes in Venice was eftim- 

 ated at feven millions of ducats, and the annual rents at half a mil- 

 lion. [Sanuto, Vite de duche di Venezia, ap. Muratori Script. V. xxii, coL 



1421, May 6''' — As we can have but few opportunities of feeing any 

 account of the antient revenue and expenditure of the kingdom of 

 England, the following ftatement of them for one year ending with 

 Michaelmafs, prefented to the king by the treafurer of England, appears- 

 worthy of notice, efpecially as it fhows, that, even in thofe days, the 

 greatefr part of the public expenfes were fupplied from the trade of the 

 country. 



The revenue confifled of 

 Customs on wool - - - - ,^3,976 1 1 



Subsidy on wool _ _ - _ 26,035 18 8- 



Small customs - - - - - 2,'138 9 I4 



Duty of 1 1 pennies on tlie pound in the value of goods (the w hole a- 



mountofwhich thence appears to have been^l64j750:15:10) 8,237 10 gf 



40,676 19 gi 

 Causual revenues paid into the exchequer - - 15,o66 11 1 



Total revenue - _ _ _ 55,743 10 10^ 



Out of the above were to be supported 

 The custody or defence of England - ^5,333 6 8 



ofCalais and its marches in time of war 1 9,1 1 9 5 10 



of the marches of Scotland and Koks- 



burgh, in war - - 19,500 O 

 of Ireland f - - 1,666 13 4 



• The 3000 vefTch carried only five or fix men f With icfpcft to the marches of Scotland vvc 



each on an average, and the 300 Ihips about have the correfpoiulinf; tcllimony of the hillorian 



twenty one eacl). Ot the 45 gallics fome mud ofCroyland, \jip- Giile, p. 56^] that the keeping 



have heen formidable vcfTcls, each of them having, of Berwick alone cod abont this time 10,000 



upon an average of the whole 45, about 244 fea- marks annually ; and thence he concluded, tliat 



ir.en, a fufficient complement for a very rcfpcdtabic the pofilfllon of it was a lofs, rather than an ac- 



modcrn frigate. qviifition, to England. Thus thofe two antient 



