640 A. D. 1424. 



amounted in the firfl: year almofl to fourteen tlioufand marks, which, 

 without making any allowance for (hort returns ufual in fuch cafes, 

 makes the annual income of the people of Scotland, independent of the 

 lands and cattle employed by land-holders in their own hufbandry, 

 which were exempted, amount to near 280,000 marks, equal in efFe<5live 

 Talue to about three millions of modern flerling money. Next year, 

 the zeal of the people being cooled, the tax was lefs productive ; the 

 people grumbled (for taxes, except in cuftoms, which became part of 

 the apparent price of the goods on which they were charged, were un- 

 known) and no more was levied. [Scoticbron. V. ii, p. 482.] 



1425, March — The parliament of Scotland prohibited the exportation 

 of tallow. — No perfon was allowed to go abroad as a merchant, who 

 had not three ferplaiths* of wool, or other goods of equal value, either 

 of his own property, or configned to him — A duty of 2y"in the pound 

 on the value was impofed on woollen cloth exported ; and a duty of 2/6 

 in the pound was laid upon falmon exported by ftrangers. Englifh 

 goods imported were charged with a duty of 2/6 in the pound, alfo of 

 the value. [ABs Jac. I, cc. 35, 41, 44.] Thefe laws fhow, that there 

 •was fome manufacture, and even exportation, of woollen cloth in Scot- 

 land. And they alfo {how, how much the principles of commerce were 

 miftaken by one of the mod enlightened and patriotic kings of the age: 

 but thofe principles were not then known on this fide of the Alps and 

 the Pyrenees, unlets perhaps by the Flemifli and Hanfeatic merchants. 



INIay — It was now a common pradice to carry fheep from England 

 to Flanders, whereby the price of wool was lowered, to the great dam- 

 age of the king and the kingdom. The parliament therefor ftridtly 

 prohibited all perfons from carrying fheep beyond the fea, except for 

 victualing the town and marches of Calais. \_ABs 3 Hen. VI, c. 2.] If 

 the exportation of live fheep was really fo confiderable as to deprels the 

 price of wool in England, it proves, that there was ftill more wool ex- 

 ported than v/as worked up in the home manufactures. The uncon- 

 troulable opportunity offmuggling fheep from Calais (which might as 

 well have received carcafes from the butchers at Dover) was one ot the 

 evils attending the pofleflion of that poft. 



We find an inftance of attention to inland navigation in an ad; en- 

 forcing the ordinances formerly made for removing all impediments to 

 the paffage of boats on the River Lea, whether by abftradion of the 

 water in ditches, by kidcls, wears, or mills, {c. 5.] 



October 1 1'" The Lombards traded to Scotland in very large car- 



• The quantltj' of tlie fci'plaitli prc^bably varied Merchant, explnine three ferplaiths lobe 2 24ftonc3 



!n the co'irfe of ages. In tlie year 1527 the Uirds of wool. Q^. if not an ciror for 240 : — In Eng- 



of council in Scotland determined its contents to land a farpltr (apparently the f,>nie word) was 



be eighty Hones of wool. [_Shne de verh.fi^n. In tqiial to two faeks and a half in the year 1449, as 



vo."] Murray in the alphabetical abridgement at ajpedis by the act 27 Ktn. VI, c. 2, to be noticed 



the end of \u\i edition of the Luwi of Scolltiinl, vo. in due time. 4 



