52 RATES AND TAXES 



of the change in values that had taken place 

 since the amount of the fifteenths had become 

 fixed. 



Here, again, the principle was that the 

 subsidy was raised by a pound-rate upon lamlx, 



and likewise a pound-rate on goods; and in 

 the rates charged the land was favoured, 

 apparently, at the expense of the towns. 

 According to the schedules, every form of 

 movable property (including plate and 

 money) was to be taxed, but with land 

 only the rent, and it was provided that no 

 one was to be taxed both in respect of his 

 land and of his movables only one or 

 the other. It is interesting to notice that 

 the inequity of this system (as regards 

 movables) was mitigated by the early 

 adoption of the method of self-assessment. 

 In the words of Bacon, the Englishman 

 was the most master of his own valuation, 

 and the least bitten in purse, of any nation 



