MEDIAEVAL RATES 431 



APPENDIX II. 

 THE POOR LAW FROM 1601 TO 1834. 



THE Poor Law suggests two distinct lines of enquiry (1) the collection of 

 the funds for Poor Relief ; (2) the expenditure of the money when collected. 

 In other words, there are two questions how was the money raised ? and 

 how was it spent T Only a slight outline of the complicated subject can 

 be here attempted. 



1. THE COLLECTION OF THE FUNDS FOB POOR RELIEF. 



A variety of rates, statutory or otherwise, were collected in mediaeval 

 times. Fixed sums were required for various purposes, and their pay- 

 ment was locally apportioned to individuals in each district or parish according 

 to their ability to pay. Some of the rates were assessed on particular persons 

 in proportion to the benefits they individually received : some were raised 

 for purposes of more general utility on all the inhabitants of the wider area* 

 which were benefited by the expenditure. Some originated in feudal tenures. 

 A part of the national taxes even was raised as a local rate. Thus the sub- 

 sidies granted to the Crown under the name of " tenths and fifteenths " were 

 apportioned in fixed sums to the inhabitants of each district. A tenth of 

 the capital value of the movables in cities, boroughs, and ancient demesnes, 

 and a fifteenth of movables in the rest of the country, were thus raised. In 

 1334, a searching inquisition was made, in order to levy the tax with the 

 utmost accuracy and precision. The assessment of this year remained for 

 nearly two centuries the basis of future demands. Till the reign of Henry VII., 

 when another elaborate assessment was made, the grant of tenths and 

 fifteenths meant a grant of the sums produced and apportioned in 1334. On 

 this basis was also levied money needed for many purposes of local govern- 

 ment, not covered by other rates. The required sums, represented by some 

 fraction of the valuation of 1334, were apportioned direct upon the con- 

 tributors, according to their estimated ability to pay. As guides to relative 

 means, records were kept in which were entered the size of the houses in 

 which contributors lived, or the acreage of the land that they farmed. In 

 effect these records resembled valuation lists. Their existence possibly 

 facilitated the eventual transfer of liability from inhabitants in respect of the 

 income which they enjoyed from all sources to persons in respect of the 

 annual value of the immovable property that they occupied. 



The history of the origin of Poor Rates is, however, entirely different from 

 that of other rates, although, when once the contribution to the funds for 

 poor relief became a legal liability, they naturally were influenced by the 

 characteristics of the rates already in existence. 



The indigent, in early times, were relieved by personal charity, which 

 religion enforced as a Christian duty. The contribution of money for the 

 poor was an exercise of the will, measured in amount by the means of the 



