wept for him that was in trouble and sate chief and dwelt as a King in the Army as one that comforteth the mourners the ears that heard him blessed him and the eye that saw him gave witness to him when men gave care and waited and kept silence at his counsel although it must be acknowledged that there are now some of the Gentry more learned accomplished then in former ages and might equall or goe beyond their worthy and honorable Ancestors if they would but imitate their Alms-deeds and hospitality and not permit their greater expences in matters less warrantable and laudable to make and enforce an avaâ—ice or Rubiginem animarum canker or rust of the soul to hinder or keep them from it And Gentlemen were not then as too many now are the fools of the Parish and so little valued as they are now when too many of them may be beaten and kickt in the Market-places in the view and sight of their over-racked and disobliged Tenants piget pudet dicere I would there were no cause or occasion to speak it and with their few attendants of Sicophants Pimps and Foot-boyes be as little helped or regarded by the Common people as a ridiculous pride and a large and wastfull retinue of sins and folly ought to be But kept great hospitalities and were heretofore in their houses in the Country as the Dii Tutelares of the poor or such as were in any want or necessitâ—es the Cities of refuge in all their distresses the Esculapius Temple for wholsome or honest medicaments or unmercinary cures of wounds and diseases which the good Ladies and Gentlewomen their Wives or Daughters were then well practised in and had great respects and reverence paid unto them for it And see how little is now done in any of those kinds if he hath any fear of God or care of goodness love or respect to his Country and posterity forbear a bewailing of the ruine and decay of the moralities virtues and honor of England and wonder how that only remaining relique of our fore-fathers magnanimity and virtues that seed plot of love and good will which the Angels in their song and rejoycing at the birth of our Jesus and Redeemer proclaimed to be a blessing that seminary of reverence honor and respect that ligament and tye betwixt the inferiours and superiours that incitement and encouragement to reciprocations of love and duty and that heretofore so famous and well imployed strength and power of the Nobility and Gentry should be disused and laid side and that those laudable pious and honorable actions of Hospitality and Charity in which our Kings of England so much delighted and by a solemn and thrice repeated crie or proclamation made by one of the Heralds of a Largesse a Largesse at the creation of every Baron Earl or Duke being as the cry or joy of the Harvest mentioned in the holy Scriptures and at St. George's Feasts did put the Nobility and Gentry in mind to doe the like in their several orbes and stations should be now restrained by the want of Pourveyance or Compositions for it or that there should be any endeavours to decay and hinder it at the fountain or well head by stopping the pleasant and refreshing waters which gladded our Sion and the Inhabitants thereof and made it to be the terror of all the Nations round about us or that any should think it to be for the good and honor of England to lessen that hospitality and plenty in the Kings House or Court which is so pleasing and suitable to the humor and constitution of the English Nation hath gained the Kings of England so much love at home and honor abroad maintained so fair a correspondency and intelligence betwixt the Court and Ministry and relieved the poor and needy the Widdow and the Fatherless And is so essentiall and proper to Majesty as David when he offered sacrifice unto the Lord after the bringing back of the Ark did give to every one of the people men and women a Cake of bread a good piece of flesh and a Flaggon of wine and so customary as the Romans could not think themselves secure in the good wills affections of the people without their Epulae and publick Feasts and caressing of the people which Julius Caesar nor his Successor Augustus would not adventure to omit Nor Domitian and Severus who gave oyle wine and other necessary provisions a Fin as Lois d' Orleans rightly understood it d' concilier l' amour de leurs Subjects quils prenoient par lebouchâ— to procure the love of the people who were taken by the mouth and was so customary in France as well as England as at a great solemnity there after that our King Henry the fifth had espoused the Daughter and Heir of France and the people of Paris in great numbers went unto the Louvre to see the King and Queen of England sit at meat together with their Crowns upon their heads but being dismissed without an invitation to eat or drink by some of the Officers or Masters of the houshold as they were accustomed they murmured exceedingly for that when they came to such grand solemnities at the King of Frances Court they used to have meat and drink given them in great plenty and those which would sit at meat were by the Kings Officers most abundantly served with wine and victuals and at extraordinary Feasts as that at the marriage of King Henry the fifth of England and the Lady Katherine Daughter of Charles the sixth King of France had Tables furnished with victuals set in the streets where they which would might sit and eat at the Kings charges as was afterwards also done at Amiens at the enterview of Lewis the eleventh of France and Edward the fourth of England And was there in those dayes most laudably used a fin dâ— unir le peuple au Roy les pieds a la teste pur affirmir le corps politick le lier par une gracieuse voire necessaire correspondence to the end to fasten the people unto the King and the feet unto the head to strengthen the body politick and unite all the parts thereof by a loving and necessary compliance and was an usage so well entertained in other Nations as the Tartars and Laplanders would not be without it and the Graecians thought themselves dishonored if there were not a more then ordinary care to entertain strangers of free cost insomuch as a Law was made amongst the Lucani to punish such as took not a care of them and the Swedes and Gothes esteemed it to be so great an unworthines not to doe it as they did by a Law ordain That whosoever denied lodging or entertainment to any strangers and was by witnesses convicted to have thrice offended in that kind his house was to be burned Those or the like kind and charitable customs haveing so crept through the cranies of humane
for a greater observance is certainly to be tendered unto the King even in that particulâ—r of Praeemption which may well be believed by all that are not Quakers whose Tenants all the people of England are mediately or immediately by some or other Tenure Then that which is usually done to Lords of Manors Justices of Peace or Country Gentlemen by their Tenants or poorer sort of Neighbours who if they chance to catch any Woodcocks or Partridges in any of those Gentlemens Lands will bring them to their â—ouses to sell at such cheap and easie rates as they shall please to give for them and if which seldome happens they should carry them to the Markets and not thither are sure enough to be chid for it and crossed and denied in any greater matter which they shall have to doe with them And is but that or a little more curtesie which Butchers Fishmongers and other Tradesmen selling victualls or provisions in great quantities and all the year or often unto their constant Customers will not for their own ends fail to doe or neglect or to sell unto them at easier rates then unto others and find themselves to be many times no loosers by it insomuch as some have lately well afforded to sell to a constant Customer for great quantities at the same rate it was 40 or 60 years before And the Compositions of the Counties for Pourveyance to serve in Beefe Mutton Poultry Corn Malt and other provisions for the Kings Houshold and the maintenance and support of it at a more cheaper rate then the Markets yeild which when they were first set was but the Market rate or a little under long agoe made and agreed upon by the greater Officers of the Kings Houshold and some Justices of Peace in every County and easily and equally taxed and laid upon the whole and not upon any particular man which was poor or of a small Estate not fit to bear it May be with as much and more reason allowed and chearfully submitted unto as those many now called quit rents or Rent services which the most of our Nobility Gentry and others not for some few of them doe yet hold some of their Tenants to their antient and reasonable Customes doe receive and their Tenants easily and willingly pay for their several sorts of â—apola Gavels or Tributes charged upon their Lands before and since the Conquest in Kent a County recounting with much comfort of their many Priviledges and beneficiall Customes and most parts of England as Gavel Erth to Till some part of their Landlords Ground Gavel Rip to come upon summons to help to reap their Corn Gavel Râ—d to make so many perches of hedge Gavel Swine for pawnage or feeding their Swine in the Lords Woods Gavel werk which was either Manuopera by the person of the Tenant or Carropera by his Carts or Cariages Harth-silver Chimney-money or Peter-pence which some Mesne Lords do yet receive Were Gavel in respect of Wears and Kiddels to catch Fish pitched and placed by the Sea coasts Gavel noht or Fother or Rent Foder which did signifie pabulum or alimentum ut Saxones antiqui dixerunt and comprehended all sorts of victuals or provisions as the old Saxons interpreted it for the Lord probably in his progress or passing by them and was in usage and custome in the time of Charlemaigne the Emperor about the year of our Lord 800. when the people of Italy Regi venienti in Italiam solvere tenebantur pro quo saepe etiam aestimata pecunia pendebatur were to provide Foder or provisions for the King when he came into Italy in liew of which money to the value thereof was sometimes paid and was long after taken to be so reasonable as it was by the Princes and Nobility of Italy acknowledged in an Assembly to be inter Regalia as a Prerogative due to the King And after the Conquest for Aver Land or Ouver Land carriage of the Lords Corn to Markets and Fairs or of his domestick utensils saith the learned and Judicious Mr. Somner or houshold provisions of the Lord or his Steward when they removed from one place to another sometimes by horse Average sometimes by foot Average one while within the Precinct of the Manor thence called In average and at other times without and then called Out Average whereupon such Tenants were known by the name of Avermanni or Bermanni Smiths Land holden by the service of doing the Smiths work the not performing of which several services so annexed to the said several sorts of Lands and their Tenures made them to be forfeited which though not exchanged and turned into Rents Regis ad exemplum in imitation of the indulgence and favour of King Henry the first to the Tenants of his demeasne Lands either then or shortly after but many of them as appeareth by Mr. Somner continuing in Kent to the Reign of Henry the third others to Edward the first and Edward the third and some in other places to the Reign of King Henry the sixth and in all or many of the Abbies and Religious Houses untill their dissolution in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the eighth notwithstanding that the Lords of Manors and Leets receiving those free or quit Rents as they were called of their Freeholders and Tenants belonging unto their several Manors in lieu and recompence of those services did or ought in their Court Leets twice a year holden cause to be presented and punished any unreasonable prises for provisions or victuals sold in Markets Fairs oâ— otherwise or if they have not Leets are when they are Justices of Peace authorised to doe it and by that untill their Interests perswaded them to let their Tenants use all manner of deceipts in their Marketings and get what unreasonable prises they pleased so as they themselves might rack their Rents farre beyond former ages might have had their provisions untill this time at as low and easie rates as the Kings prouisions and Compositions were at when they were rated and set by the Justices of Peace in the severall Counties and all others of their Neighbourhood might also have enjoyed the benefit of the like rates which the Law intended them And the King may as well or better deserve and expect as many Boons or other services as the Nobility and other great men of the Kingdome doe notwithstanding many Priviledges and Indulgences granted by their more liberall Auncestors and better bestowing their bounties to their Tenants And to be furnished with Carts and Carriages at easie rates as well as the Earl of Rutland is at this day for nothing upon any removall from Belvoir Castle in Lincolnshire to Haddon in Darbyshire and elsewhere from one place to another with very many Carts of his Tenants which are there called Boon Carts when as all Lords or Gentlemen of any rank place or quality in the Kingdome doe take it to be no burden or grievance to their
to even the Tax or Assessements of the people or to make them to be just so much and no more then the Kings wants but were alwayes like the Tax in France for money to buy the Queen Pins or the Aids given to some Foreign Princes to marry their eldest daughters which amounted unto many times double the sum of the greatest portions which they gave with them or the Aides in England to make the Prince or the Kings eldest son a Knight when the expences never came neer the sum contributed and as heretofore the City of London and other Cities and Corporations have done in their Taxes and Subsidies leavyed upon the Citizens and Townesmen which did usually by a considerable everplus furmount the necessities and occasions of them Or if there could be any Reason Prudence or Religion for the people to permit their Soveraign who is to protect and defend them to live under the Tyranny discredits and pressures of Debts and necessities when as that which is grievous or too much for him to bear may easily be supplyed or helpt by a contribution of the multitude or many giving every one a little It cannot be for their good that the Kings small Revenue and the Hospitality and honor of his house-keeping should be subject to the enhaunce of Prices cosening and cheating of Tradesmen and of every one which his Officers and Servants shall have occasion to deal with or that the Royal Revenues should be like Pharaohs lean kine devoured by the fat or daily tormented and gnawn upon like Titius heart in the Fable with greedy and never gorged Vultures Which if the King and his Revenue could bear at the present will be every year and oftener more increased as the pride of the people and their avarice and cheating to maintain it shall multiply When such a great Provision of Meat and Victuals as is necessarily to be made for the Kings houshold and his multitude of Servants and Attendants will when his Provision shall not be sent in as formerly to his Court which did prevent it sweep and take away the best sorts of Provisions from the Markets and as experience hath already told us make scarce and dear all Commodities not only in the Markets within the Virge or in or near London but in the more remote places or threescore miles off and as far as Salisbury all that can be brought to the Markets near the Kings residence or his occasions Teach the people to heighten their Prices whose measure and rule of Conscience is to ask high rates and take as much as by any pretences tales falshoods or devices they can get and more of the King Nobility and Gentry then of the Mechanick or Common people and get thereby unjustly of the King more then all their Subsidies and Assessements if they be not very great shall come unto And if the great enhaunce of Prices were not or could not be so great a consumption of the Kings Revenue it must needs be altogether indecent and unbefitting the Duty and Honor of Subjects to their Kings That the Kings Harbingers should be so ill entertained as one of them was lately by one of the Tribe of Naâ—al at Windsor at the solemnities of the Feast of the Garter who answered his demand in the Kings name for lodgings for some of the Kings Court or retinue that the King had quitted his Pourveyance and was now no more unto him then another man and he was at liberty to let his lodgings to any one who would give him six pence more Or as one of his Pourveyors was by a London Poulterer by Trade and a Captain by a sinful mistaken Commission who upon the ingagement of an unwarrantable Covenant with hands lifted up to heaven to testifie his Loyalty to the late King Charles the Martyr whilst with the same hands he did fight against his Person Authority for liberty of Conscience to destroy him his more Loyal and Honest Subjects did no longer ago then the last Christmas when he should have bewailed his Rebellion and the sad account which he was to make to God for those numberless sins which he had accumulated by ingaging in such an ungodly and unwarrantable war and should have bin more thankful for his Majesties Pardon and Act of Indempnity and abhorred and repented his former wickedness buy against the will of the Kings Pourveyer three Bitternes which he was bargaining for and buying of a Poulterer and though he was informed by the Pourveyor that he was buying and had bid money for them for the King could in a most unchristian rude and barbarous manner say He cared not a Turd for the King he had bought and would have them and would by no means be perswaded to permit the Kings Pourveyer to have them Or that every Clown and Carter and every mans Kitchin-Maid shall in matters of Market and Provision be at liberty to buy Salmons Phesants Partriches Bustards or the like fitter for the King then their Masters or Mistresses out of his Pourveyers hands Or if the product of the taking away of the Pourveyance and Compositions for them could be so innocent as not to swell and multiply the Kings charges beyond its just or former dimensions there will be many other Evils and Inconveniencies by enforcing the Officers and servants of the Kings-houshold to buy and provide his and their food and provisions as the common people do theirs when they shall be larded or inlaid with all the oaths deceits and pretences which the invention of the Market people can possibly lay upon it and when that and many over-reaches and couâ—ening tricks shall be endured cannot by the carelesness of the Clerks of the Market and too many of the Justices of the Peace be always at any certainty that they do not buy the Beef of some diseased Oxe or Cow which had the knavish help of a Butcher to make mans meat of that which was more fit to make a Feast for the Crows or such Dogs as should have the happiness to smell out the Carrion and go a share with them or that the Poultery which they shall buy were not killed by some accident or disease as many times they are before they are brought or offered to be sold. And if that all the many other mischiefs inconveniencies which â—hall happen by taking away the Kings Pourveyances Compositions for them levelling him and his Officers Servants ranking them in the business of Markets amongst the Vulgus Plebeians or common or rudest sort of the people and rendring them in the particular of Pourveyance in a worse condition and more to be exacted upon then many of the Nobility Gentry and Lords of Mannors are whose Tenants are not at liberty to use them either as Strangers or Inferiors and in as bad a condition as the poorest or meanest laborer of the Parish were fit to be endured or could be reckoned amongst the honors and respects due unto
Aurum Reginae Gold or presents made and given to the Queen in return of their Gifts and favors received from the King Great liberties and priviledges by grants of free Warren Mines Felons and Outlaws goods Deodands Waiss Estraies Fishings Court Leets Tolls and freedom from Tolls to many Cities and people of England granted since the ninth year of the raign of King Henry the third when for the like and some other liberties then confirmed unto them the people of England not having half so much before that time granted unto them as by the bounty and Indulgences of the succeeding Kings and Princes they have had since took it to be no ill bargain to give unto the King for that his grace and favour a Subsidy of the Fifteenth part of all their moveables not loosely rated or much undervalued as their posterities have found the way to do Abundance of Wood and Tymber sold and destroyed by their prodigal posterities which yeelded them as much money as the inheritance of the Lands would have done some of their wives like the story of Garagantuas lusty Mare whisking down with their Tailes whole Woods and great store of Timber in them of two or three hundred years growth A lesser number of servants and retainers and charge of Badges and Liveries especially since the Statutes of 1 R. 2. ca. 7. and 8 E. 4. ca. 2. made against too great a number or the abuse of them when as now many Gentlemen can put a Coachman Carter into one and supply the places of a Servingman Butler and Taylor by one man fitted for all those imployments A great increase of Wool and the price thereof since the Raign of King Edward the third by our quondam flourishing Trade of Clothing untill that our late giddy times of Rebellion had so very much lessened and impaired it Many great Factories or Manufactures of Bays Sayes Serges and Kerseys at and about Colchester Sudbury c. and of stuffs at Norwich Canterbury Sandwich Kiderminster c. erected and encouraged before our long and late unhappy wars and the raign and Rapine of Mechanick Reformers The Lands of Wales greatly improved since the Raign or King Henry the fourth and his severe Laws which denyed them the intercourse commerce and priviledges of England The freeing of some of the Northern Counties as Cumberland Westmerland and Northumberland from the trouble charge and damages of maintaining their Borders against the Scotish formerly and frequent outrages invasions and taking away their goods and cattle by day and by night And the like freedom from the incursions and depraedations of the Welch assured and settled upon the four Shires or Counties of Gloucester Worcester Hereford and Shropshire by the guard and residence of a Lord President of Wales and the Marches thereof Abundance of Markets and Fairs now more then formerly granted so as few or no parts of England and Wales can complain of any want of them within every four or five miles distance Great stoâ—e of Welch Scottish and Irish-cattel now yearly brought into England when as few or none were heretofore Horses Oxen and Cattel now by Law permitted to be transported into the parts beyond the Seas which were formerly denyed A greater profit made to many private Lords of Mannors by Lead and other Mines c. more then heretofore Many Fruit Trees bearing Apples Pears c. yearly planted and great quantities of Sider and Perry made more then formerly Many Rivers made Navigable and Havens repaired The loss of Cattel and great damages by Inundations of the Sea or the Creeks thereof or of some boysterous and unâ—uly Rivers prevented by contributions to the making of Sea walls by several Statutes or Commissions for Sewers None or very little trouble or charges before ouâ— late wars for maintaining of Garrisons c. or by the disorder or Rapines of any of them Our Ships better then in former times secured upon the Sea Coasts by light houses c. Some of our Principal native Commodities as Fâ—llers Earth Leather Hides c. and Corn when it is not cheap prohibited to be exported Divers Statutes restraining Aliens not being Denizend to Trade or keep Shops c. Convenient provisions made for Vicars in case of Churches appropriate The goods of Foraigners to be taxed for the payment of fifteens The breed of large Horses and increase of Husbandry commanded divers Statutes made for the incouragement of Merchants Merchandize and Mariners preservation of Fishing Fuel Cattel and Rivers and against Freequarter of souldiers excessive Tolls Forestallers Regrators Ingrossers and Monopolies Riots Routs and Vagabond Rogues and to relieve the poor All Commotes or unlawful gatherings of money in Wales and the Marches thereof taken away Weights and measures Regulated Depopulations prohibited Many an unjust title in concealed Lands made good by sixty years quiet possession Interest for money lent reduced to a lower rate then formerly and Brokage forbidden No Tillage or errable land to be laid down but as much to be broken up Merchants Strangers permitted to Trade and sell their Merchandize in England and buy and sell things veâ—dible and a great improvement of Trade and Merchandize six or seven times exceeding that which was in or before the raign of Queen Elizabeth Fishgarthes in the Rivers of Ouse and Humber ordered to be pulled down The passage upon the River of Severne freed from Tolles imposed by the proprietors of the Lands upon the Banks The bringing of Silver Bullion into England by our English Merchants encouraged the transportation from thence of Gold and Silver without the Kings licence prohibited and the care of the Kings Exchangers untill the disuse of it now of late preventing all abuses in the coyn or money of the Kingdom Merchants Aliens and Merchants of Ireland ordained to imploy their mony received in England upon the Commodities thereof and every Merchant Alien to finde Sureties that they shall not carry Gold or Silver out of this Realm The keeping of great numbers of Sheep by rich men whereby meaner men were impoverished restrained to a certain number Ordinances made for Bakers Brewers and other Victuallers The prices of victuals to be rated and assessed by the Magistrates Rents of houses in Staple-Towns to be reasonable and assessâ—d by the Maior Great quantities of waste grounds and Commons inclosed and improved A long and happy Peace at home for more then two hundred years Many an Act of Parliament made to prevent or remedy grievances enlarge the peoples liberties and make them the most free and happy Nation in the world si sua bona Norint if they could but be content with their happiness and know how to use it All the Revenues and Estates of the people aswell reall as personal exceedingly and by many degrees improved more then formerly And all manner of Victuals and provisions sold at such excessive rates and prices as would busie our Forefathers with no common or ordinary wonder if they could be alive again
afterwards by reason of the Murrain of Cattel and a more then ordinary unseasonableness of those years twenty quarters of Corn were furnished for the Kings use and taken by the Sheriff of Kent at eleven shillings the quarter as appeareth by a Tally struck foâ— the payment thereof yet extant in his Majesties Receipt of the Exchequer and although that in the year next following by reason of a peace with France and the great victories before obtained against it by the English when the King was rich and the people rich which makes a Kingdom compleatly rich with the riches and spoiles gained thereby and that great store of Gold and Silver Plate Jewels and rich vestiments sparsim per Angliam in singulorum domibus were almost in every house in England to be found and that in the 23. year of the Raign of the said King so great a mortality of men and Cattle happned ut vix media aut decima pars hominum remaneret as scarce a third parâ— and as some were of opinion not above a tenth part of the people remained alive which must needs have made a plenty of money tunc redditus perierunt saith the Historian hinc terra ob defectum Colonorum qui nusquam erant remansit inculta tantaque miseria ex bis malis est secuta quod mundus ad pristinum statum redeundi nunquam postea habuit facultatem insomuch as Rents or Tenants for Lands were not to be had the Lands for want of husbandmen remained untilled which would necessarily produce a dearth and scarcity of Victuals And so great was the misery as the Kingdom was never like to recover its former condition And that in the 25. year of the Raign of King Edward the third by reason of the Kings coyning of groats and half groats less in value then the Esterling money Victuals were through all England more dear then formerly and the Workmen Artificers and servants raised their Wages yet in Anno 12 R. 2. though there was a great dearth yet Wooll was sold for two shillings a Stone a Bushel of Wheat for thirteen pence which was then thought to be a great rate a Bushel of Wheat being sold the year before for six pence And in Anno 14. of King R. 2. in an account made in the Receipt of the Exchequer by Roger Durston the Kings Bayliff he reckons for three Capons paid for Rent four pence half penny for thirteen Hens one shilling and seven pence for a Pâ—owâ—share paid for Rent eight pence and for four hundred Couple of Conies at three pence a couple one hundred shillings In Anno 2 H. 5. the Parliament understood four pounds thirteen shillings four pence to be a good yearly aâ—lowance or salary for a Chaplain being men of more then ordinary quality so gâ—eat a cheapness was there then of Victuals and other provisions for the livelihood of men and for Parish Priests six pounds per annum for their Board Apparrel and other necessaries and being to provide that Jurors which were to be impanelled touching the life of man Plea Real or Forty Marks damage should be as the Statute of 42 E. 3. c. 5. required men of substance good estate and credit did ordain that none should be Jurors in such cases but such as had fourty shillings per annum in Lands above all charges which was so believed to be a good estate in 5 H. 8. c. 5. which was almost one hundred years after as the Parliament of that year did think it to be an estate competent enough for such kind of men In the Raign of King Henry the sixth after that France a great and rich neighboring kingdom was wholy conquered and possessed by the English who had not then learned their wasteâ—ul Luxuries or Mimick fashions and could not with such an increase of Dominion and so great spoils and riches transported from thence hither but be abundantly and more then formerly full of money the price and rates of Victuals was so cheap as the King could right worshipfully as the Record saith keep his Royal Court which then could be no mean one with no greater a charge then four and twenty thousand pounds per annum and in the 33. year of his raign which was in Anno Domini one thousand four hundred fifty and five by assent of Parliament granted to his son the Prince of Wales but one thousand pound per annum whilst he had Dirt and Lodging for himself and his servants in his house until he should come to the age of eight years and afterwards no more then 2000. Marks per annum for the charge of his Wardrobe Wages of servants and other necessaâ—y expences whilst he remained in the house of the King his â—ather which was then thought sufficient to support the honor and dignity of the Prince and heir apparent of England though now such a sum of money can by some one that mâ—ndeth his pleasure more then his estate and the present more then the future be thrown away in one night or day at Cards or Dice In Anno 37 H. 6. Meadow in Derbyshire was valued but at ten pence per Acre and errable Land at three pence In the 22. year of the Raign of King Edward the fourth which was â—n the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred eighty and two the price and value of six Oxen was at the highest valuation but ten pounds In the seventh year of the Raign of King H 7. which was in Anno Domini one thousand four hundred ninety and two Wheat was sold at London for twenty pence the Bushel which was then accounted a great dearth and three years after for six pence the Bushel Bay Salt for three pence half penny Nampâ—wich Salt for six pence the Bushel white Herrings nine shillings the Barrel red Herrings three shillings the Cade in the fifteenth year of his Raign Gascoign Wine was sold at London for fourty shillings the Tun and a quarter of Wheat for four shillings In the 24. year of the Raign of King Henry the 8. a fat Ox was sold at London for 26 s. an half peny a pound for Beef and Pork and a half penny farthing a pound for Veal and Mutton was by Act of Parliament thought to be a reasonable price and with gain enough afforded In the fourth year of the Raign of Queen Mary which was in the year of our Lord God one thousand five hundred fifty and seven when very many families and multitudes of the people of England had been but a little before greatly monyed enriched by the lands spoil or the Monasteries and other Religious houses and their large possessions Wheat was sold before Harvest for four Marks the quarter Malt at four and fourty shillings the quarter and Pease at six and fourty shillings and eight pence but after Harvest Wheat was sold at London for five shillings the quarter Malt at six
her herse trimmed up as stately as the Armes-painters and Abusers can devise it with Tapers burning in great silver Candlesticks hired at the Goldsmiths and four or six women in mourning fitting to attend it to shew the beholders the unbecoming pride and vanity of it and a Shop keepers Wife whilst her husband complains of want of trade must not want a Velvet Gown every Servant must as much as their wages will reach unto imitate their Master and Mistresses in their clothes and the fashion of them which Queen Elizabeth did well prevent when she caused the Taylors to enter into Bonds or Recognizances not to make clothes finer then the degree of such as were to wear them every Cotager and Day-labourer will do what they can to eat of the best and live after the rate of a Farmer every Farmer live and have his diet like a Gentleman every Gentleman of the smallest estate whatsoever strives to live like a Knight and some Gentlewomen taking themselves to be higher born then any of their kindred or neerest relations can remember will not think their husbands do their duty unless they permit them like Baronesses to have Carpets foot paces on the ground when the Madam so called shall have a mind to sit in her garnish of sin and foolery to receive the visits of those which when the Marmalet is eaten do most commonly appear to have come onely to view and censure her pride every Knight will spend and live like a Lord or Baron and the sons and daughters of too many of our Gentry ready to tear them in peices to enforce them to make them an allowance proportionable to their pride and prodigâ—lities whilst the Gentlemen racking and raising their Rents beyond the yearly Income and value of the Tenants Lands are too often the cause that the Tenants do put as high rates and prices as they can upon their commodities to be sold or sent to the Markets and use as many Cheats as the Country Devil can invent for them to abuse and cozen the buyers the Citizens raise the price of their wares and commodities to maintain their delicacies workmen their wages because victuals are so dear servants by a sinful necessity of pride never think they have wages enough to the end that they may wear better Clothes then they should do King William Rufus Hose or Breeches of three shillings price or a Mark as he was afterwards perswaded to believe it then thought to be magnificent worthy enough for a mighty Kings wearing is not now a rate or price enough for a Ploughmans ordinary wearing And the improvements of our Lands and Estates do seem to have served for no other purpose then to improve and multiply our sins and vices whilst the hospitality and virtues of England like the brave Brittish Caractacus or Catacratus Prince of the Silures following in his chains the triumphs of the Romish Conquerers are made to be the attendants of the Triumphs of our vices and wickedness and Truth and Honesty like the distressed Naomi and her daughter Ruth going their mournful Pilgrimages to finde a better entertainment So as there must needs be a want of Trade when there is so great a Trade driven of pride and vanity and a dearness of all things when every one almost some poor and despised Moralists and men of Religion and care in their ways and walkings onely excepted makes what shift he can per fas aut nefas to save and get what he can for himself and there is scarce a courtesie done for one another without a bribe or fellow-feeling the sons are ready to betray their parents and the parents to prostitute and deliver up their children to the slavery of sin for the support of their pride and luxuries the most of our friendships and realities now turned into a lying most dissembling and accursed complement the rich making it their hoc age and onely business to oppress the poor who since the fall and dissolution of our Abbies and Religious Houses are so impoverished and increased as a Gentleman of the same and no more Land and Estate then he had fourty years ago paying but three shillings four pence per annum is now constrained to pay forty shillings per annum and the rates and prices of workmens wages victuals and every thing else so increased and beyond reason more then was formerly as may appear by the difference betwixt what was in Anno Domini one thousand four hundred thirty and seven in the sixteenth year of the Raign of King Henry the sixth now but two hundred thirty and two yeers ago when â—hichely Archbishop of Canterbury built that famous Colledge of All-Souls in Oxford there was paid to a Stone-cutter but two shillings ten pence a week a Carpenter four pence a day a Sawyer fourteen pence a hundred for sawing of boaâ—ds a Joiner five pence half penny a day and but sixteen pence for himself and his servant for two days four pence a day to laborers five pence a day to such as digged stones four pence a day for a Cart for a weeks Commons for Mr. John Wraby who was comptroller of the works and an eminent man in those times fourteen pence for his servant ten pence for the meat of his horse for a week ten pence half penny and for the expences oâ— Mr. John Druel Surveyor of the works travailing with two servants and three horses from Maidstone to Lambeth and their charges at Lambeth for two nights and two days seven shillings And what is now paid to workmen when a Carpenter will have three shillings a day and eighteen pence or two shillings a day for his man and eighteen or twelve pence a day for a common laborer as there is never like to be any more easie or reasonable rates for houshold provisions or workmens Wages or any hospitality to be found in England nor any thing else of vertue or goodness unless the wisdom of the King and his great Councel shall prevent that Ultimam ruinam great and destroying ruine which citato cursu as to the peoples Estates in this life and sending their souls into the other world with a Lord have mercy upon us is galloping upon the Nation and will never be prevented either by preaching or Church Censures or the King and his Nobilities own examples without some severe and well observed Sumptuary Laws now very much wanted by an unhappy repeal of all in that kind which we had before and without which all that can be done to hinder and destroy an innundation of miseries which by our pride and luxury far surmounting any of our forefathers is suddainly like to over-run us will be to as little purpose as that which the King of Achen is said to do when he and all his nobilty do in the blindness of their Religion upon a certain day in every year ride in great pompe and procession to the Church to look if
pay one per cent for provision of Fortresses In the Kingdom of Barnagasso the King hath besides Silks and Cloth of Gold and other precious things for Tribute Horses and payeth himself 150. Horses to Pretious or Prete John Emperor of Ethiopia of whom he holdeth The Kingdom of Oghy besides a Tribute of Gold and Silver sendeth him yearly a thousand Beeves In Ethiopia the Prete or Emperor upon the coming or returning of Embassadors gives order to his Subjects or Vassals to furnish them with provisions for their Journey and not long agoe commanded one to whom he had but a little before given a little Lordship containing not above 80. Houses and two Churches to furnish an Embassador with five hundred Loads of Corn a hundred Oxen and a hundred Sheep The Gozagues do yearly pay to their King besides great quantities of Gold and Silver a thousand Beeves alive The Maldives do yearly pay unto their King the fifth part of the grains which they sowe and give him a Portion of their Coco's and Limmons and besides their Taxes compound also for fruits and honey The Princes and great men in Japan do contend who shall give most to the Caesar and almost impoverish themselves by their Presents All the houses in the City of the Kings Residence are by the King taxed towards the making of Fortresses In Firando in Japan when any forraign Merchants are by the King invited to see Playes and publick Shows they send Presents to him and every forraign Merchant that comes thither may not sell his goods untill he hath carried a Present to the Emperor And when any of the Kings white Elephants are brought unto him the Merchants in the City are commanded to come and see him and bring every one a Present of half a Ducat which altogether amounteth to a great sum of money In Industan when the Mogol goeth abroad or in progress euery one saith Sir Thomas Roe by whose house he passeth is to make him a Present Sir Thomas Roe himself doing it when the King or Mogol rode to the River of Darbadath All the Persian Merchants doe bring their goods first to the Mogol who buyes what he pleaseth and after his Officers have set the rate they may sell to whom they will All men strive to present him with all things rich and rare and no man petitioneth him for any thing empty-handed and thereby come to preferment some giving him one hundred thousand pounds in Jewels at a time The King of Achen commands those of Tecoo to bring thither their Pepper which none may buy but he and puts off his Surat commodities in truck to them at what rates he pleaseth and oftimes sends his commodities to Priaman and Tecoo enforcing them to buy them at his own rates none being suffered to buy or sell before he hath vented his own At Bantam the Governor or Protector so called useth to send in the Kings name to the people to serve him with sacks of Pepper some a hundred some fifty some ten some five at the Kings price which was a Riall less in a Sack then the Merchants paid Divers bring Presents of Rice and Cashes and some bring imbroidered cloth for the Kings wearing Nor were the more civilized part of the Heathen only accustomed to the way of Pourveyance or bringing provisions or presents to their Kings and Princes but the wild and savage part of them were by the Lawes of nature and glimmerings of the light of reason taught to doe it In Mexico in the West-Indies and its large Dominions under the Emperor Montezeuma containing 100 Cities and their Provinces the people did pay a certain yearly Tribute to the King for water brought by pipes into the City Those that hold lands did yearly pay unto him one third part of their fruit and commodities which they had or did reap as gold silver stones dogs hens fouls conies salt wax honey mantels feathers cotton and a certain fruit called Câ—cao which they there used for money also all kinds of grain Garden-herbs and fruits Some Towns paid 400 burdens of white Mantles others great Tropes of wood full of Maiz Friâ—oles c. some four hundred burdens of wood others four hundred planks of Timber some every six moneths brought four hundred burdens of Cotton-wool and others two thousand loads of Salt two hundred pots of Honey twenty Xacaras of Gold in powder and some a Truss of Turkie stones and paid besides the King of Alzopuzalco a Tribute of Firre and Willow-trees towards the building of a City Divers Provinces are bound to provide fire-wood for the Kings house amounting unto two hundred and thirty weight a day which was five hundred mens burdens for the Kings particular Chimnies they brought the Bark of the Oak The Incas or Indian Kings before the coming of their unlucky loving friends the Spaniards had their Tributes yearly brought unto the Court and when any work was to be done or any thing to be furnished for the Incas the Officers knew presently how much every Province Town and Family ought to provide and by their Registers strings and knots knew what every one was to pay even to a hen or burden of wood And as Inea Garzilasco de la Vega a Native of Cozco relates in his book of the antient customes of those Countries did amongst other Tributes make and furnish clothes and Arms to be used in warr In Virginia the Weroances under-Lords or petty Kings did hold their lands habitations and limits to Fish Foul or Hunt of their soveraign King Powhatan to whom they pay Tributes of Skins Beads Copper Pearl Dear Turkies wild Beasts and Corn. And in all Savage Countries the English Merchants and Navigators as Mr. Edward Winslow a man afterwards too well known amongst the plundering and mistaken godly at Haberdashers Hall hath related at his return from thence doe make presents to the Savage Kings In new-New-England the Sachims or Lords are subject to one Sachim to whom they resort for protection and pay homage neither may any make warre without their privity every Sachim knoweth the bounds and limits of his Country and that is as his proper Inheritance and out of that if any of his men desire Land to set their corn he giveth them as much as they can use and puts them in their bounds Whosoever hunteth or killeth any venison which is there much of their food he bringeth him his Fee which is the fourth part of the same if it be killed on the Land but if in the water then the skin thereof Once a year the people are provoked by the Pinieses Knights or Councellors of the Sachims to bestow much corn on the Sachim who bring him thereupon many Baskets of corn and make a great Stack thereof In Florida where they all goe naked and doe but litle exceed the beasts of the field in understanding and want the wit of most part of the Nations of the world to cover their nakedness they can notwithstanding
that valiant Saxon King and his own and others treachery gained and gotten to himself the whole Kingdome murdered Edmond Ironsides kindred and friends denied his children their fathers right in the Kingdom of the West Sexes banished them deprived his Cousin Olaus of the Kingdome of Norway and acting an haughty and domineering Tyranny thought his Prerogative to be so boundless that he took it ill that the Sea which is only commanded by him that stilleth the raging waves and rideth upon the wings of the wind did not adore his feet and run back like the river Jordan and having Demeasns Provisions enough of his own for the maintenance of his Houshold and lazy and unruly Lourdanes did in a contrivance of some ease to the people in small or less considerable matters the better to please them and assure his new Dominions sapientum adhibito Consilio by advice of his Parliament or Councill in Anno 1010. ut quo prius opprimabatur onere populum liberaret that they might be freed from the burden with which as he said they were formerly oppressed amongst other things by a Law Order and Command his Officers as the learned Mr. Lambard hath out of the old English or Saxon published it ut ex aratione praediis suis propriis quae sibi fuerunt ad victum necessaria suppeditent neque alius quisquam victui sui adjumenta praestare invitus cogatur atque si eorum aliquis hoc nomine mulctam petierit is proprii capitis estimationem Regi dependito that out of his own Demeasnes they should provide necessaries for his Houshold and that none be compelled to furnish any provisions And if any of his Officers should impose any penalty upon them for not furnishing such provisions he should himself forfeit or pay a great sum of money amounting to near as much as he was worth But as John Bromton who wrote in the Reign of King Edward the third hath recited that Law it doth something differ from that which Mr. Lamberd hath mentioned and is only in these words praecipio praepositis meis omnibus ut in proprio meo lucrentur inde mihi serviant nemo cogatur ad firmae adjutorium aliquid dare nisi sponte sua velit all his Reeves or Officers were commanded that they should make the best profit they could of the Kings Lands for his use and that no man should be compelled to add or pay any thing more then his Rent or Farme unless he should do it of his own accord Et si quis aliquem inde gravabit werae sua Reus sit erga Regem and if any should disturb them therein they should forfeit and pay a Fine to the King And that Law or Edict or Proclamation rather then a Law taken as it is either in Bromton or Lambard was but only intended as the title and body of it signifieth de victu ex praediis regis concerning his Tenants in his own Lands and Demeasnes and any provisions to be made by them over and above their Rents but did not discharge Cart-taking or other parts of the Royal Pourveyance in his own Demeasnes nor extended to any Lands or people other then the Kings own Demeasnes and can signifie no more then his desire to spare the Tenants of his own Lands from being charged with any provisions for his House who as Sir Edward Coke saith in his Comment or Annotations upon Magna Charta and the Statutes of Articuli super Chartas being the Kings Tenants in antient Demeasne have ever since enjoyed many great priviledges as to be free from payment of Toll paying of wages to the Knights of the Shire which serve in Parliament and the like And were by speciall priviledge granted by William the Conqueror to have upon Judgements obtained against any that did them wrong double the forfeitures and penalties or damage which were to be adjudged to any other And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Mr. Somner saith in his Glossary victum propriè sonans signifying only some provision of victuals reserved it is not likely that the firmae adjutorium in Bromtons Translation of that Law or Edict of King Canutus could be meant or expounded that no provisions should at all be paid for then it would have signified the whole Rents to have been acquitted if no moneys had been used to have been paid together with provisions Or if as the judicious Sir Hen. Spelman saith the word Farme doth import tam redditus pecuniarias ex elocatis provenientes quam Annonarias as well for rent in money as corn and other provisions for housekeepings pro caena prandio corrodio convivio epulis et omni mensae apparatu sumitur and is taken for a Corrody Supper Dinner Feast or any other provision to furnish the Table and that some money and some provisions were paid for their Rents it remains a doubt what that favour intended by Canutus his Law or Edict should be interpreted to be or how much of that Kings provisions towards the keeping and maintenance of his house were by him remitted or if it shall be understood to have been only in alba firma quae argento penditur non pecude only in money which if at all was very seldome used in those times that also must be denied to have been either the meaning or practise of that Law or Edict of Canutus when as the Tenants of the Crown have been found to have paid their provisions for Housekeeping in Edward the Confessors reign before the Conquest and after in the reigns of William the Conqueror William Rufus and part of the reign of Henry the first so as the way to get out of it will be in all probability to understand it to be no otherwise then a foâ—bidding the rapines and the outragious taking of the peoples Cattel Corn and Provisions by his unruly Danes who had so lately been invading and plundering enemies and were scarcely denizend For in the same Parliament we find his Law that Dona potionis honoraria aliaque debita Dominis officia in suo semper statu immutato manerent honorary oblations or customes for drink with other duties of Tenants to their Lords should continue as formerly and remain unchangeable And the Customes of England afterwards extant and to be found in old Charters and Doomsday book do accordingly often mention Bordland to find provisions for the Lords Houses or Tables Droâ—land to drive their Caâ—tel to Fairs Markets c. Berland to bear or carry provision of victuals or the like for them or their Stewards in their remove from place to place Poâ—ura or Drinklan or Scot ale a Contribution by Tenants towards a â—otation Drinking or an Ale provided to entertain the Lord or his Steward coming to keep his Courts Gavel Malt Gavel Corn ad deferâ—endum cariandum ad costas expensas tenentium usque ad granarium and to carry it at
Last take upon them for the payment of all the Herrings that shall be sold by their assent to any persons and the hundred of Herring shall be accompted by sixscore and the Last by ten thousand That the people of London at such Fair shall bring the Last from Yarmouth to London for one Mark of gain and not above That the Fishers be compelled to bring the remnant of their Herrings not sold in the Road of Kirkley to the Fair to sell them so that none sell Herring in any place about the haven of Yarmouth by seven miles except in three Towns of Yarmouth that is to say Easton Weston and Southton unless it be Herrings of their own Fishing The Chancellor or Treasurer taking to them Justices and other the Kings Council shall have power to ordain remedy touching the buying and selling of Stock-fish of Saint Botolph and Salmon of Barwick and of Wines and Fish of Bristâ—ute and else-where to the intent the King and his People may better be served and have better Markets then they have had before this time and that the Ordinances by them made in this party be firmly holden Doggers and Landships of Blackney Haven shall discharge their Fish there the price of Dogger-fish and Loichfish that is to say Lob Ling and Cod shall be assessed by the Advice of the Merchants and Rulers comming to the Fair of Blackney and of the owners of the ships before any sale be made which shall be holden during the Fair Every man shall buy Herrings openly and not privily at such price as may be agreed betwixt him and the seller And no man shall enter into bargain upon the buying of the same till he that first cometh to bargain shall have an end of his bargain greable to the seller and that none increase upon other during the first bargain Londoners and other shall sell victualls by retail Sweet wines may be sold by retail at the price of Gascoyne wines Victuallers shall have but reasonable gains according to the discretion of the Justices of Peace there shall be but eight Bushels striked to the Quarter the severall measures of vessels of wine Eels Herrings and Salmons and vessels of Oil and Honey to be gauged 12 E. 4. ca. 8. Divers Patents being granted under the great Seal of England to divers persons to be Surveyors and Correctors of beer ale wine and victuals within divers Cities Boroughs and Towns it was ordained That they should be void and that the Mayors Bayliffs and chief Governours of Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate shall be the only Searchers and Surveyors of victualls for that every City Borough and Town of substance in England for the most part have Court Leeâ—s and views of Frank-pledge holden yearly within the same Cities Boroughs and Towns surveying of all victualls therein and correction and punishment of the offenders and breakers of the Assise of the same which ought not to be câ—ntraried Ordinances made by Guilds Fraternities and Companies of Trade shall be examined and approved by the Chancellor Treasurer of England or Chief Justices of either Benches or three of them or by Justices of Assise in their Circuits to prevent and hinder unlawfull Ordinances as well in prises of wares as in other things to the Common hurt and damage of the people When any victualler is chosen Officer in any City except London York and Coventry Borough or Town Corporate which by virtue of his Office should have the Assising and Correction for selling of victualls that then two discreet and honest persons neither of them being Victuallers shall during that time be sworn truely to sess and set the price of victuals such as sell false and mixt Oils to be searched and punished and such as destroy wild â—oul whereby formerly the Kings most honourable Houshold and the houses of Noblemâ—n Prelates were furnished at convenient prices to be punished Upon complaint made for enhauncing of prices of victuals the prices thereof shall be assessed by the Kings Councellors and Officers and they which have victuals to sell shall sell them at the same prises The Prises of the But Tun Pipe Hogshead c. of all kinds of wines when it shall be sold in gross shall be set by certain of the Kings great Officers Whosoever shall buy or sell any Fâ—sant or Partridge saving the Officers of the Kings Queens or Princes houses shall forfeit for every Fesant six shillings eight pence and for every Partridge three shillings four pence to the King Conspiracies made by Victuallers touching selling of victuals shall be grievously punished Taverns may be appointed in every City Borough or Town Corporate to sell wine by Retail None shall retail wines but in Cities Market Towns c. Vintners which sell by Retâ—il in Towns Corporate shall be assigned by the head Officers thereof and in other Towns by the Justices of Peace And 2 3 Ed. 6. by a temporary Act expired with the time therein limitted which may shew the minds and intents of the makers and what was then thought convenient for that small part of time and being probably only done upon some grounds or reasons of State for the present or in ease of the people or some popular designe of the then ruling Lord Protector was not then nor at any time after thought fit to continue any longer it was ordained That no Pourveyor or other person by authority of any Commission or other Warrant shall during three years then next ensuing pourvey or take for the provision of the Kings Houshold his Sisters or any others any Corn Beeves Muttons c. Wood Coal Straw Hay or any kind of Victuals without the full consent of the owner and at such price for ready money as the owner or Pourveyor can agree nor shall take for any of the Kings Affairs or the Warres or otherwise any Goods Chattels or other things whatsoever saving Barges Ships Carts and things necessary without the consent of the owners and at such prises for ready money as the owner Pourveyâ—rs can agree except Post-horses for which shall be paid a penny a mile and the King will allow to the owner of every Cart taken for his houshold four pence a mile and for the Warres and other Carriages three pence a mile The Lord Chancellor of England Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings Councel Lord Privy Seal and the two Chief Justices or any five four or three of them are authorised to set prises of wine and none to sell either in gross or by retail above those prises No Cattel shall be bought but in open Fair or Market but by a Butcher provisions of houshold Butter or Cheese shall not be bought to be sold again except it be by retail in open Shop Fair or Market Forestallers and Regrators shall be punished Badgers and Drovers licensed by three Justices of the Peace
enforce them in requital thereof and care of themselues to stretch as much or more the prices of their Cattel and Commodities because their Landlords were insatiable and did never think their Rents high enough raised as long as they could find any pretences to raise them higher or any one to give them the utmost penny when they should not be able to pay their Rents maintain their wives and children and have some little comfort or incouragement by their honest labours unless they should as much as they could make every thing as dear as they could and imitate or exceed them All which combining and strongly confederating together his mersere malis have brought many an evil upon the Kingdome made our Atlas burthen much the heavier the poorer sort of the people to be greatly impoverished and devoured like sheep and the landed and richer part like the Israelites with Quails in their mouths murmurring in the midst of their peace and plenty and thinking that to be thanks enough for them and all their Mannah And like those which distempering their bodies and breeding and causing their own diseases are unwilling to acknowledge themselves to be the Authors of what they complain of but would willingly make the aire and heavenly influences to be in the fault and when they make the high wayes the fowler by their own travailing and riding in them and the worse for the next that shall come after them will lament the deepness or foulness of them Or as Landlords which can grievously complain and wonder at the high rates of Flesh Fish Corn Butter Cheese and other houshold provisions at the Markets when the enhauncing of their own pride extravagancies and profit to maintain them and sequestring themselves from the virtues and hospitalitie of their more beloved and honored Ancestors when they have any thing to buy themselves will not as they should lay the blame upon their own letting their Lands by exact and strict measures of the Acres Rods and Perches to the utmost rack and farthing and in many places by as much indiscretion as unconscionableness apportion and limit the wood which the Tenants are to burn or use by the loads as if it were something more pretious or to be brought by degrees to be weighed by the pound or ownces and will have more rent many times to be paid for it then can possibly be made of it with as many nomine paenes and impossible to be kept Covenants and restrictions as hard-hearted curiosity and diffidence can contrive and invent to the sometimes ruine or great losses of the Tenants in their endeavours to improve and make their Farms yeild as much as their Rents doe amount unto which necessitates them to sell every thing which they have to sell at the highest rates And by so letting their Lands at the highest rent and ten times higher then their Grandfathers some only few good and worshipfull imitators of their Progenitors virtues excepted or as much as can be gotten are not only the greatest cause of the enhaunching of all prices of provisions but by making another as great an advantage to themselves Do when as they do not pay Rents as their Tenants doe for the Lands out of which they raise their commodities add to the prejudice of the Buyers by holding of them up to the rates and humour of the Markets and getting as much as they can possible for what they themselves do sell and send to the Markets And by such or the like profitable and beneficiall customes which are sweet in the mouth or unto the taste but may be bitter in the stomach or digestion of making their benefits by the losses or oppression of the Buyers which at the Markets with those reckoned and included which are at home and to be fed with what is bought or brought from thence are forty for one that are sellers and those that have either Lands of their own or at a Rent are not one in every twenty for those which have not have very much enlarged their own Estates and impoverished the Commonalty Wherefore all those of our Nation which like the wanton at last unhappy Sybarites now troubled with a great deal more under a slavish government and dominion of the Turks then the crowing of the Cocks in the night time to disturb their sweet sleeps or repose which once they were so foolish as to account an inconvenience would but summon in their consciences and a right understanding of causes and effects to the Tribunal of reason and observe the dictates of that and common right The Praeemption which was never used to be denied to praeheminence but alwayes attended it as an insepeperable Concomitant and Consequence and so esteemed to be rational as the rude and unmannerly Dutch with their heads in a piece of a Rug and their good manners running out of their knees can afford it to the lowest rank of their Heeren self-created Lords or States or to a Schepen or Sindic Sheriffe or Recorder of a Town would not be found to be a grievance and where any Priviledges as there ought to be many are associate and incorporate with Soveraign Majesty the King of England under whose grants and allowance only every Seller as well as Buyer at Fairs and Markets claims and enjoyes the liberty of buying and selling should not himself be unkindly used or his Pourveyors debarred the liberty of a first Buyer which was in Anno 720. or thereabouts understood to be so necessary and inherent to Kingly authority and Supereminence the reverence respect and duty belonging unto it and a priviledge so just and reasonable and becoming Subjects to be well contented with and the Regality of Kings not to part with as King Ina one of our Saxon Kings did by a Law prohibit Fore Fang or Captio Obsâ—niâ—rum quae in Foris aut Nundinis ab aliquo fit priusquam Minister Regis ea caeperit quae Regi fuerint necessaria the taking or buying of houshold prouisions by others in Fairs or Markets before the Kings Minister or Pourueyor took those things which were necessary for the King the words of that Law as the learned Sir Henry Spelman hath in the Version rendred them de Fore fang 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Saxon signifying ante or before and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prendere or to take i. e. de preventione decrevimus per totam Angliam quod idem judicium teneri debet We ordain that this Law of Prevention or Praeemption be firmly holden throughout all England And is more fit to be allowed unto the King whose just Rights and Jurisdictions every man is sworn or ought to swear to maintain and defend If there were no fifth commandement in being or any other Praecept in Scripture to honour and obey the King then unto Lords of Manors having Markets and Fairs belonging unto them or the Lord Maior or Sheriffs of London or the Magistrates of any other City or Town Corporate in England
benefits received which highly pleasing the Almighty and being lovely in the eyes of all men which are not only enjoyed but held fast and enforced by all the Nobility Gentry and richer sort of men in England when it happens to be denied as the services and customes of all their Tenants to grind their corn at their Lords Mill or baking their bread at his common Oven in some Borough or Market Town The Reliefs in Tenures by Knight Service or Chivalry fixed and appropriate unto those Fewds and Tenures and paid at the death of every Tenant dying seised being at the first never condescended unto by the Tenants by any paction or stipulation betwixt them and their Lords But although there was antiently and originally betwixt the Lord and the Tenant mutua fides tuendae salutis dignitatis utriusque saith Bodin a mutual obligation betwixt the Tenant and the Lord to defend one anothers Estate and Dignity or as Craig saith pactionibus interpositis de mutua Tutela upon certain agreements to defend one another were lately notwithstanding received and taken by the Nobility and Gentry as a gratitude and in that and no other respect were by the Tenants willingly paid unto them The Reliefs paid by the Heirs of Freeholders in Socage after the death of their Ancestors which being not paid by Tenants for years by a rack Rent do appear to have no other commencement but in signum subjectionis gratitudinis a thankfull acknowledgement for benefits received Or those duties payments which many Lords and Gentry doe enjoy in Cumberland Westmerland and many of the other Northern Counties which were not at the first by any original contract or agreement as to their Tenants particular services for so it could not be a custome but the Tenants at the first upon the only reason of gratitude untill it had by length of time and usage uninterrupted gained the force of a custome and that the succeeding Heirs and Tenants were admitted according to those customes did as willingly observe and acknowledge them The Fines incertain at the will of severall Lords which the Nobility and Gentry of other parts of England do receive and take of their Copihold Tenants under the penalty of a forfeiture if not paid in a reasonable time after they were assessed and the priviledges which they retain of seising their Tenants Copihold Lands as forfeit whether the Fines were certain or incertain if they sued Replevins against them distraining for their Rents or Services and had no other parents or originall untill custome had settled it then the Tenants gratefull acknowledgements of the Lords or his Ancestors former kindess and benefits bestowed upon them or their Progenitors And the Socage Lands and Freeholders might be Tallied or have a Tax laid upon them by their Lords at their will and pleasure as their necessities or occasions required as well before as after the Statute de Tallagio non concedendo made betwixt the years 25 34 Ed. 1. and if it had been an Act of Parliament and not a Charter could bind only the King as to his extraordinary but not to his legall Tallages untill custome by the kindness or favour of time and the curtesie and good will of their Lords did permit them by a desuetude of imposing and a well rellished custome of the Tenants not paying to enjoy their easie and cheap bargains and freedome of their Lands for which they should doe well to remember better then they doe their Benefactors and be more mannerly and gratefull then of late they have been and were before those indulgencies held to be so accustomed and usual as it was not seldome found by Inquisitions and Juries upon oath that such or such land was holden Et Talliari potest c. And might have Taxes or a greater Rent laid upon them by the Lord of the Manor in so much as the Kings demeasne Lands were not free from Tallage which will be evident enough by a presentment of a Jury of Nottinghamshire before the Justices in Eyre in anno 8 E. 1. or King Edward the first when the Kings Letters Patents of a Grant of the Town of Retford to the Burgesses thereof and their Heirs in Fee Farm was found and mentioned in these words viz. Edwardus Dei gratia c. Sciatis nos concessisse c. Burgensibus nostris de Retford quod ipsi eorum haeredes de cetero habeant teneant ad feodi firmam de nobis haeredibus nostris in perpetuum villam nostram de Retford cum pertnen reddendo inde nobis haeredibus nostris per manus suas proprias decem libras per annum ad Scaccarium nostrum ad festum Sancti Michaelis pro omnibus serviciis c. Salvo inde nobis haeredibus nostris Tallagio nostro cum nos haeredes nostris Dominica nostra per Angliam fecimus Talliari c. reserving to himself and his Heirs a Fee Farme Rent of ten pounds per annum and the power of Tax or Tallage or improving what he had granted unto them when he should have occasion to make a Taxe or Tallage upon all his Demesne Lands in England And untill Rents were racked of which the Kings of England and the Officers of their Revenue in land were seldom or never yet much guilty that Rents were improved as high as the profits of Lands all the Lands of England except the Copihold Customary lands by Fines certain the curtesie of time and their Landlords suffering their good will and charity to be reduced into thankless customs escaped it were liable to be made contributaries to many of the necessities or occasions of the Lords of Manors who formerly did not make Leases and take Fines to lessen the rents as they doe now by a high rate or rule of interest and disadvantages procuring their rents to be advanced as it were in the name of a Fine before hand nor if the Lands were holden in Capite by Knight service untill time and their Princes favours had disused it could make a Lease unto any Tenant of such Lands but by licence and then also for no longer a term then 3. or 7. years And their Lands and Rents except Capite and Knight-service and Copihold land and lands in Frank Almoigne being capable of no higher Rents or improvement cannot now be any more by them Tallied which in effect is but a calling for more rent or raising it which every Landlord may do where his Tenants are at Will or when their Leases are expired when they are now all but those Lands before excepted as to the King and the mesne Lords and the Lands of the Freeholders and Cop holders at the utmost or a very high rent And such Tallage is at this day not laid aside by our Neighbours of France in very many places were les Tailles se paient par ceuz du Tiers estat c'est a dire par les habitans
and the greatest of Customes because it was not gained as most of the peoples Customs or Prescriptions were the best of which had no other originall then the continuance of favours of those that bestowed and permitted them to be enjoyed or a neglect of taking or calling for duties untill time had over-run and covered them with that which is now called a Custome or Prescription but were established by a threefold obligation composed of a Right or Duty a very antient Custome backt by the Lawes of God Nature and Nations and a Contract made and continued by the people to their King built upon the best and greatest of considerations which the Prophet David in the 15 Psalm if it had not been beneficiall but to some loss or damage adviseth not to be broken And merited the bettter observance in that Queen Elizabeth did but the year before call into her Mint and reduce unto pure silver the monies which her Father King Henry the eighth had so much debased with a mixture of brass as it was scarcely half the value in silver which made the price of commodities so much or a great deal the dearer and by her Edicts did all she could to bring down the prices in the Markets which then began to swell more then there was any cause for and in her composition and agreement with many or most of the Counties of England and Wales the next year after did but accept of what then they understood might as the learned and judicious Mr. Camden hath informed us justo pretio at a reasonable or Market rate be well afforded And the Lords of Manors who according to the several customes thereof think it not unreasonable to enjoy their Chevagia or Chiefage which Cowel takes to be pecunia Annuâ— data potentiori tutelae patrociniique gratia a small yearly payment paid by Tenants as acknowledgments for favours and help received or to be received and take their reliefs of their Tenants in Socage in some places by custome a years value and in some but half as much and in others more according as their customes vary the least of which in value of money doth twice exceed what it amounted unto formerly enjoy their Free Warrens and Fishings with many other Priviledges and immunities by Grant or Prescription and with the Yeomanry and lower ranks of people can be content to claim the benefit of their Customes de non decimando of paying no Tythes at all for Lands formerly belonging to the Cistercians Knights Templers Hospitlers or Knights of St. John of Jerusalem or of a modus decimandi of paying but a penny or some little yearly summe of money in lieu of all Tithes and make an inheritance of the greatest part of 3845 Impropriations with the Smoke-pennies or Peter or Chimney pence which being formerly paid unto some Abbies and Religious Houses and coming afterwards to the Crown in the Reign of King Henry the eight and granted out again by him are in many places as Appendants unto some Manors paid unto this day And think it no grievance to enjoy them and many other priviledges which wereby Grants or Exemptions by Papal Constitutions designed to Religious and not any Lay uses And the customary services of their Tenants to repair wayes and Bridges contribute to the maintenance of a Priest or Preacher or to the marriage of poor Maids or to carry Milstones some miles distant to their Milnes to doe suit of Court or be Butler Baker or Carver at some Festivals and can notwithstanding all the sometimes tedious Suits in Law of their Tenants who hold by Fines incertain and their complaints cram'd in a great purse made of many little ones attended with staves and ill-smelling shoes and feet travailing for relief to Westminster Hall and the superior Courts of Justice with store of out-cries of grievances and oppressions filling every Alehouse they come in with the lamentable tediously told stories of that which they doe many times but guess to be like them raise their Fines for admittances unto two years present value which amounts unto sixteen or twenty times as much as the antient value and demand and take ten or thirteen shillings an Acre to reduce the Fines incertain to a smaller certainty Can take the Optimum Animal or best horse or beast for a Herriot at the death of their Tenants when it exceeds the value of as much as 40 or 50 or 100 to one of what it was at the Conquest when it was reduced from a greater to that lesser rate and within a month or less after take as much as they can get for an Admittance of the Widdow or Heir of the deceased which in Copihold Estates differs very Little from a Relief and in some places as in Cumberland Westmerland and some adjacent Northern Counties compel them besides their formerly perilous enjoyned services annexed to their Lands to be ready night or day to repell the incursions of their plundering and unruly Scottish Neighbours to pay a thirtieth penny after the rate or assise of their old rents upon every Alienation and a twentieth upon the death or change of a Landlord which were formerly more easie and have been since only raised to those higher rates in regard of a greater value since put upon lands houshold provisions and commodities should not murmur at the small oblations which in no burdensome great or general contributions are to be made unto the King for the maintenance of himself and his Royal Family And the Copiholders who can when they please think themselves happy in their customes of Fines certain which patientia charitate in jus transiâ—runt crept by the charity and sufferance of their Landlords into that which they doe now call Tenant rights when as the lands which they do now hold is in the improved yearly value ten or sixteen or twenty times in many places more then the former yearly value and are by so much beyond the intention either of the Lords or Tenants the Grantors or Grantees when those Fines certain were at the first set or accepted and in those Tenant Rights as they call them and many of their Customes have in many places large Pastures and Meadows of many Acres yearly thrown out at Midsummer or the first day of August or some other time in the Summer or latter end thereof for a Township to inter Common for three quarters of every year or some months and in some places have Common belonging to their Copyholds for paying to the Lord of the Manor yearly as in Grayes Case in Hil. 37 Eliz. a hen five eggs much increased in price since that collateral recompence as it was in that case resolved to be was first taken continued and preserved unto them by the care of the King and his Laws by Inquiries formerly in the Eyres or Circuits de novis consuetudinibus levatis if any oppression or new customs were imposed by their Lords and no sooner complained
for murage or repair of the walls of Towns as Ipswich Harwich Newcastle upon Tine Ludlow c. or Cities as London Norwich York Bristol c. which must of necessity raise the rates of commodities brought thither to be sold and by the same power or authority remit or release them and being granted to many Cities or Towns but for three of seven years or as to London for five years or some other short term since expired is as may be feared under a colour of custome or praescription as yet continued Or being Soveraign of the British seas to take weekly for all Herring taken therein six pence for every Ton and the like for other fish every three weeks either of his own Subjects or forraign Nations or for his Admiral under him to take the tenth of all the Prizes or Ships of his Enemies taken at the Sea and money for Anchorage paid by every Ship for their quiet riding in the river of Thames or any of the Kings Harbours And with as good reason as the Burrow Mealis in Scotland where quilibet Burgensis debet domino Regi pro Burgagio quinque denarios annuatim dicuntur incorporari annexique Fisco patrimonio Regis every Burgess was to pay five pence per annum for his mealis which Sir Henry Spelman interprets to be a Farme appropriated to buy provisions in regiae mensae apparatum for the Kings Table or Houshold and are said to be incorporate and annexed to the Patrimony of the King and his Exchequer Or as the Provost of Edenburgh or other borough Towns in Scotland may take and receive four pence upon every quarter of Malt of ilk Brewster quhe brewes aill all the zeir four pennies and for â—ne halfe zeir twâ— pennies As the Apprisers of flesh are appointed to apprise it at the Kings price ilk dayes of the Markets and to admit the eath of the â—â—sâ—er in that matter And as by the Statutes of King David the second it was ordained that for relief of the inward parts of the Realm quhair woll hes course and quhilks ar burdened with customes and that the remanent parts of the Realm may be made equall with them in all services and burdings It is Statute that certain sommes and quantities of victuall quhareof there is abundance in these utward parts sick as Marts beir and sicklike sall be taken up zeirly at the Chamberlains command to the expenses of the Kings house according to the prices quihilk in auld times used to be taken up in these places Queen Mary the Lord Governour and Lords of secret Counsell havand respect to the great and exorbitant dearth risen upon the will and tâ—me Fowles ordained the prices thereof as 5 s. Scottish the Swan the black Cock and gray hen six pennies twenty of their pennies being but two pence the Woodcock four pennies and the dousâ—n of Laverocks and uthers small birds four pennies c. And by as good reason as King James the sixth his Majesties Grandfather confirmed the Acts of Parliament made by his noble Progenitors for the stanching of dearth of Victuals and setting order and price on all Stuffe and ordained all Earls Lords Barons as well within regality as royalty and their Bailles to landwart and the Provestes and Bailles of all Bâ—rrows and Cities to cause the said Acts to be put to due execution every ane within their boundes and Jurisdiction respective makand and constitutand them Justices to that effect with power to make and appoint Statutes and Ordinances for the special observation of the saidis Acts at every head Court zierly Assigned money and victuals of several Shires and places in Scotland to the keeping of the Castles of Edinburgh Dunbartane Strivilinge and Blacknes Declared the tenths of all Herrings taken in the Scottish Seas to be due unto him as King of Scotland and all infestments and Alienations in few ferme or utherwaies and all dispositions quhatsumever in all time bygane and to cum of the Assise Herring to be nil and of no avail because the said Assise Herring pertanis to the King as ane part of his Customes and annexed property And by as much or a greater warrant or assent of reason as King Henry the 5. of England did in a Patent or Grant of the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland to James de Boteler Earl of Ormond authorise him ad victualia sufficientia necessaria pro expensis hospiâ—ii sui ac Soldariorum suorum in quocunque loco infra terram predictam per Provisores hospitii sui alios ministrossuos unacum Cariagio suâ—ficienti pro eisdem tam inâ—ra libertates quam extra feodo Ecclesie duntaxat excepto pro denariis suis rationabiliter solvend capere providere juxta formam diversorum Statutorum de hujusmodi provisionibus ante haec tempora factorum to take victuals sufficient and necessary for the expences of his Houshold and his Souldiers by his Pourveyors and other Ministers in any place whatsoever in Ireland with carriages sufficient for the same as well within liberties as without the Fees of the Church only excepted at reasonable prises according to divers Statutes made concerning provisions And was so well grounded upon Law and reason as all the succeeding Lord Lieutenants or Deputies of Ireland have ever since not wanted those necessary priviledges to attend their high honourable trusts imployments could so little be parted with in the 19. year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when Sir Henry Sidney was Deputy of Ireland as the Earl of Desmond the Viscount Baltinglas other unquiet spirits refusing to pay the provision or Ceasse as they there called it for the Lord Deputies house the Souldiers in Garrison which the learned Camden saith was exactio rei Annonariae certo pretio provisions to be furnished at a certain rate or price ad alendum proregis familiam militesque praesidiarios for the Lord Lieutenants or Deputies Families the Souldiers in Garrison quasi non exigenda nisi ex authoritate Parliamentaria as not due unless it were ordained by authority of Parliament sending over their complaints into England the Lords of the Privy Council upon the hearing bate thereof committed them and those which remained in Ireland and had sent them were in like manner imprisoned untill they should submit to the payment and furnishing thereof for that it appeared by the Records of that Kingdome to be antiquitus institutum an antient constitution jus quoddam Majestatis a part of the right appertaining to the soveraign Power Praeeminence or Kingly Praerogative quae legibus non subjicitur nec tamen legibus adversatur ut Jurisprudentes judicarunt which being not against the Laws was not to be subjected to them saith that worthy Historian the Queen then only ordering the Lord Deputy to use as much moderation as he could in taking those Provisions or Pourveyances And as
quondam Protector and whether the turning of their freedom into a slavery and the intreating of him by that which by a dreamed authority of Parliament they called the Petition and advice to accept oâ— ten hundred thousand pounds per Annum to be charged upon the people without a Land Tax for the maintenance of a Navy ten thousand horse and Dragoons and twenty thousand Foot to keep them and their posterities in sin and slavery with such other supplies as should be needful to be raised from time to time and three hundred thousand pounds per Annum in like manner to be raised for the support of his Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government were less trouble and charge than the Kings Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service and his Compositions for Pourveyance the greatest yearly profit by the Tenures in what was paid to the King not amounting unto above one hundred thousand pounds per Annum and the Pourveyance which saved the King in his Houshold expences above one hundred and forty thousand pounds per Annum not charging the people in these late times of enhaunce of prices above Sixty five thou-pounds per annum Who when they shall have paid double or treble more then the Excise is rated at by colour of the Excise which was by Act of Parliament given to the King and his Heirs and Successors in supplement of his exhausted and overwasted Revenue and racked and oppressed one another by occasion or pretence of the charge of it cunning and avariâ—e of the selling and richer part of the people Merchants Retailers and Mechanicks of the Nation every one striving to put the damage from themselves and shift as much as they can the burden upon others will by a lamentable summa totalis find how little they have gained by putting their Prince into necessities and how small a gain or blessing they will leave to their posterities When by begging getting and keeping all they can from the King and cozening him all that they can the common people unless they will have their body Politick to be without a head and as they were in the Time of Usurpation when there was no King in Israel busied like the Beasts of the Forrests and Fishes in the Sea in devouring and oppressing one another in a Chaos of villany and confusion cannot subsist or maintain themselves in peace and plenty without enabling the King to support himself to protect anâ— defend them And may without any violence used to their judgments believe that it was better with the common people of England when they paid for theiâ— Farms some rent in mony some in provisions of house-keeping when by the hospitality of their Landlords they were sure to partake of them their Lands and Rents being not tortured or drawn up to the highest pin or screw of the Rack or any possible improvement which might be made of it And the plowing of some part of their Lords Demeasnes reaping or carrying in of their Corn and helping them to fetch home some Wood or Coals did not amongst a many of Tenants according to their proportioned services for which they reckoned the love protection and hospitality of their Landlords to be satisfaction enough amount unto the Twentieth or Thirtieth part of the rack Rent which now they do pay and have not so much as a Cup of Beer or a morsel of Bread given them when they come to pay it Which the people of Scotland may to their cost experiment if they should as the rustick part of the people of England have done never think themselves happy untill they have shaken off the services and obligations to their Lords and Benefactors and in stead of paying some Chaldâ—rs of Victuals Mailes and other more easie duties have their Lands let by their Landlords to the utmost penny and bidding and like the Israelites in their Egyptian bondage make Brick and gather the Straw and pay a Rent as much as the Land or Farm can possibly yeild or it may be a great deal more And may perswade the people that there is a grand necessity attended with many other great necessities that the King should have again his just and harmless rights and prerogative of prae-emption Pourveyance and Compositions and as great a necessity for the people if they will avoid those heaps of evils and inconveniences which may otherwise happen upon them and their posterities to desire that he should have it When the oppression of the Markets and the peoples working upon one anothers necessity the most part of them walking by no rule of piety virtue morality humanity charity or conscience but labouring all they can in their actions to advance the kingdom of Sin and Satan and their own everlasting punishments shall by their wicked and illegal enhauncings ingrossings combinations and contrivances make the prizes of every thing to be so immense and unreasonable as the vicious and Rooking part of the people will if such rates and prices shall hold on continue and grow higher and higher as they are like to do without some Bando or reiglement and a greater care taken by the Justices of Peace and Clerks of the Market then hitherto they have been pleased to bestow in the execution of their places and duties undoe and begger the virtuous or such as shall be inforced to buy at such unreasonable rates their provisions of food and livelyhood make as a Jew lately well observed none but the richer part able to live with any plenty or content uâ—terly ruine the middle ranks of the people and enslave and begger the poorer who must like the Gibionites be well contented to be hewers of Wood drawers of Water that they may live and eat bread And that all that the King and his Council can do by putting in practice the antient usage of a Jury impannelled by the Clerk of the Market within the Virge of the Court and commanding them upon their Oaths to set a marketable and reasonable rate according to the usual prices of Victuals and household provisions in Markets and elsewhere which all men were enjoyned by His Majesties Proclamation strictly to observe cannot now that the Pourveyance or Compositions for it are laid aside keep their rates and prices within the bounds and limits of any reason but the people are so insatiable in their gains and so cuning to promote their unjust designs therein as they do not only not keep the Kings rates but to enlarge their profit and prices do all they can to bribe and go a share with some of his Pourveyers When it is very evident and demonstrable and our own happiness might tell us if we did not too much mistake and abuse it and make our sins to be the product of it that now that in England by laying down of Tillage more than it should there is more Pasture Land to feed or fatten Cattel ten or twenty to one then ever it had before and that this our fruitful Isle hath both
or avarice by taking advantage of some particular persons folly or over-bidding and keeping up the excessive rates of the Market to the same or a more unreasonable price and not being willing to let them fall again to a lower price though there be plenty and reason enough to do it unlawful combinations and confederacies of Trades men to raise their prices or cause their wares to be made Slight or insufficient unconscionable adulterating of Commodities and making them seem what they are not to raise the greater prices evil Artifices of Forestallers of the Markets Ingrossers and Regrators who for their own ungodly gains can make a dearth and scarcity in the midst of plenty and like Caterpillars spoil and devour the Hopes of the years fertility the Landlords racking of rents and the price of all manner of houshold provisions and other things raised by the Tenants to enable them to pay them an universal pride and vanity of the Nation and enhaunce of prices to support them plunder miseries and desolations of War numberless tricks and deceipts of Tradesmen and fraud of the common and Rustick part of the people in the Counties neer London in keeping many of their Cattel half a mile or some little distance from the Fairs untill the Evening or much of the day be spent to make them to sell at greater rates frequent deceits of stocking or Tying up the Udders of Kine a day before hand to make them swell and seem to give great store of Milke And as many other tricks of Trade and deceit as the Devil and deluded consciences can invent And truely looked upon as causes or concurrent parts of the cause of the now grand and most intollerable inhaunce of the rates and pâ—ices of Victuals houshold provisions and other Commodities there will be little or no room for the supposed plenty of Gold and Silver to be either a cause or so much as any part of a cause of it Nor can be well imagined when as notwithstanding that betwixt the middle of the Raign of King Henry the eight and the beginning of the Raign of Queen Elizabeth the Gold and Silver Mines of the West Indies had by the Spanish cruelty to the Indians and their almost extirpation afforded such quantities of these baites of Satan and temptations as two hundred and sixty millions of Gold did appear by the Records of the Custom house of Sivill to have been brought from the West Indies into Spain all the plenty of that riches either by our Merchants bringing in of Bullion from Spain and its other Kingdomes and Provinces by Commerce or return of Merchandize did not so in England raise enhaunce the rates and prices of Victuals and houshold provisions but that we finde the Parliament of 24. H. 8. ordaining that Beef Pork Mutton and Veal should be sold by the weight called haber dupois no person should take for a pound of Beef or Pork above one half penny nor for a pound of Mutton or Veal above half penny farthing did believe they might be reasonably so afforded And the rates of Victuals and houshold provisions notwithstanding so increasing as in the yeer following It was ordained That Governors of Cities and Market Towns upon complaint to them made of any Butcher refusing to sell victuals by the weight according to the Statute of 24 H. 8. ca. 3. might commit the offenders toward untill he should pay all penalties limitted by the said Statute and were enabled to sell or cause to be sold by weight all such victuals for ready money to be delivered to the owner and if any Grasier Farmer Breeder Drover c. should refuse to sell his fat Cattel to a Butcher upon such reasonable prices as he may retail it at the price assessed by the said Statute The Justices of Peace Maiors or Governors should cause indifferent persons to set the prices of the same which if the owner refused to accept then the Justices c. should binde him to appear the next Term in the Star Chamber to be punished as the Kings Councel should think good And the same Parliament Enacting That upon every complaint made of any enhauncing of prices of Cheese Butter Capons Hens Chickens and other Victuals necessary for mens sustenance without ground or cause reasonable in any part of this Realm or in any other the Kings Dominions the Lord Chancellor of England the Lord President of the Kings most honorable Councel the Lord Privy Seal the Lord Steward the Lord Chamberlaine and all other Lords of the Kings most honorable house the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster the Kings Justices of either Bench the Chancellor Chamberlains under Treasurer and the Barons of the Kings Exchequer or seven of them at the least whereof the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer the Lord President of the Kings Councel or the Lord Privy seal to be one should have power and authority from time to time as the cause should require to set and tax reasonable prices of all such kinde of Victuals how they should be sold in gross or by retail and that after such prices set and taxed Proclamation should be made in the Kings name under the great Seal of the said prices in such parts of this Realm as should be convenient for the same Was not of opâ—nion that the plenty of Gold and Silver were any cause of the enhaunce of the prices or rates of Victuals but did in the preamble of that Act declare That forasmuch as dearth scarcity good cheap and plenty of such kinde of Victuals happeneth riseth and chances of so many and diverse occasions that it is very hard and difficult to put any certain prices to any such things yet nevertheless the prices of such Victuals be many times enhaunced and raised by the greedy covetousness and appetites of the owners of such Victuals by occasion of ingrossing and regrating the same more then upon any reasonable or just ground or cause to the great damage and impovershing of the Kings subjects Siâ— Thomas Chamberlaine qui mores hominum multorum vidit urbes who by his several Embassages fâ—om England into Foraign Countries in the Raigns of Kiâ—g Henry the eighth and King Edward the sixth was not a little acquainted with the customes of other Nations aswell as his own did in the Raign of King Edward the sixth in a Treatise entituled Policies to reduce the Realm of England unto a prosperous wealth and estate dedicated unto the Duke of Somerset then Lord Protector assign the causes of the high prices and dearness of Victuals far less then what is now to be abasing of Coyn and givâ—ng more then Forty pence for the ounce of Silver ingrossing of Commodities the high price of Wooll which caused the Lords and Gentlemen being by the suppressing of the Abbies and liberality of King Henry the eight waxen rich to convert all their grounds into Sheep Pastures which diminished Victuals ten Lordships to the great decay of Husbandry
licencia an unbounded licence in the Magistrate to Tax the people and a licence to the people in stead of a liberty to Trade and cozâ—n one another makes them so patient to undergo those vectigaliâ— ac Collationes aliaque servilâ—a onera Taxes payments and servil burdens which otherwise they would be unwilling to endure All or most of which being continued and lying heavy upon them upon pretences of debts incurred for the publike to be paid or otherwise have made such a dearth of all houshold provisions as that notwithstanding that their huge Granaries at Amsterdam are always stored with abundance of Corn to transport and sell to all other Nations and Kingdoms where they finde any scarcity or want of it a family of ten persons more then one half whereof have been young children have this last Winter amongst other Victuals as Flesh Fish Roots c. been inforced to spend 17 s. sterling in a week in ordinary and common bread and twelve shillings sterling within the same Circle of time for Turfe or Firing and the generality of the Nation are sinking so fast into a poverty as by an exact account taken thereof there have been this last year more then in any of the former years above eighty thousand Pawns brought into the publike Lumbard at Amsterdam and may teach them and all the world at last how great the difference will be betwixt a natural and hereditary Prince governing by the known Laws of a Nation and with less charges and that which is onely upheld by the power of money and Taxes to make and preserve an interest for those who are the only gainers by it Did not in any of his necessities as some of his predecessors Kings of England have done in theirs both before and since the Conquest continue and take the Tax of Dane gelt laid to expel that Nation out of England after they were quieted and returned home nor as many of the English Lords of divers Mannors have done and do to this day require and take of their Tenants Peter pence or Chimney money amounting in some Mannors to considerable summes though it was long since abolished by Act of Parliament and was not to be taken in that kind or for that purpose nor doth by wars or impositions impoverish his people as some of his neighbors have done or made them to complain as the common people of Normandy did not long ago that they were une uraye Anatomy de corps humain auquel ne reste plus que les os le Peau encore foulez like an Anatomy of a mans body which had nothing but bones and skin left upon it and that also foul enough but hath made them in the generality richer then himself and more abounding in plenty and riches then any Nation of Christendom And being the son and heir of the Crowns and Kingdoms as well as afflictions of his Royal Father King Charles the Martyr who in the Halcion and peaceable days of the former part of his Raign did so much abhor the mode or manner of an Arbitary Government as he did imprison in the Tower of London that Monarch of Letters and Learning the great Selden together with Mr. Oliver St. John for but having in their custody or divulging a Manuscript or discourse written by Sir Robert Dudley a titular Duke of Tuscany and an English Fugitive of the way and means how to make the King a great Revenue according to the manner of Gabels or Taxes in Italy borrowed by Mr. St. John out of Sr. Robert Cottons famous library where it had otherwise slept and caused his Attorney General to exhibit a Bill in the Star Chamber against the now Earl of Clare the said Mr. Selden and Mr. St. John for the publishing of it though but in Manuscript and was so far from any action desire or intention of a Tyrant as when he might like the Dairo or Emperor of Japan have wallowed in riches and pleasures and as a Minotaur have fed upon the liberties of the people if he would have but delivered up the Church of England and his subjects and their after generations as slaves to the Arbitrary will Government of a Rebellious part of the people calling themselves a Parliament he did on the contrary not only most constantly endure all the miseries dangers ignominies which they could cast upon him but rather then he would betray or give up their Religion Laws or liberties laid down his life as a sacrifice to preserve them and havâ—ng before his death established our excellent Laws of Magna â—harta and made them stronger and more binding then ever they were before by confirming them and other their liberties and customs under the name and notion of their petition of Right and at the signing or ratification thereof used a saying or sentence deserving to be written in Letters of Gold which he called his Maxime and declared to be his own That the peoples liberty strengthens the Kings prerogative and that the Kings prerogative is to defend the peoples liberty did not for all those unparalelled sufferings and great Misusage of his Father and himself take any advantage of those that forfeited their interest in those excellent laws and liberties but pardoning all their transgressions restored them to all that they could but so much as pretend unto And notwithstanding that he and his Royal predecessors had quamplurimisdonis largitionibus by their very many favors and bounties to such as deserved well of the Commonwealth and had been instrumental in the preservation or promoting the good of it given away the most part of the Crown Lands and many of their Regalities doth not make an Aeraâ—ium or Treasury of mony for himself or his own particular use out of his own revenues separate from that of the publike as Lewis the 12. of France did but doth with that very small part of his Lands which remaineth and his legal and undenyable rights and prerogatives without any Taxes or Impositions laid upon the people other then what is assented unto by themselves and their representatives in Parliament bear and support the burden and continual charges of the Government and affaires thereof Which should rouze and stir up the hearts and affections of his people of England and perswade them who have now and had before the Taxes raised to improve Rebellion fewer Taxes and impositions laid upon them then any Nation within the walk or perambulation of the Sun and are the freest and do enjoy more liberties immunities and priviledges then any people of the world not to deny or withhold from him and of his just Regalities rights and preheminences but think it to be more necessary for their good and well-being to permit him to enjoy his Prae-emption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them then that which many of our Acts of Parliament have done to enjoyn the repairs of Havens and Peers as was in the last Session of Parliament for the Peer
Roturiers des Villes non Franches Bourgs Villages a proportion des biens du Taillable sans qu ' il ait estè besoin d' asembler les Estats pour ce suiet those kind of Taxes are paid by the third Estate or Commonalty that is to say by the Inhabitants or common people of the Towns and Boroughts not infranchised or freed from it by the King according to the proportion of their goods or moveables without any assembly of the Estates to that purpose except in Languedoc Provence Burgogne Daulphine and Brittaine where when the King and his Councel have resolved what the Tailles shall be les terres immeubles seulement sont Taillables the lands and immoveables only are tailleable and their near friends the Scots did long agoe so well like of gratitude as they enacted and held it to be a good Law that Lands holden in few Ferme pay and ane certain zierly dewty nomine Feudi Firme may be recognosced be the Superior for none payment of the few dewtie and that twa maner of waies the first ex provisione naturae contractus by operation of law and the nature of the contract for the few Fermorer not pay and his few Ferme for his ingratitude and unthankfulnes Tinis and forfaltis his few Ferme be the disposition of the Law quhilk as zit was not in practique and use in Scotland And the English Landlords were so unwilling to part with any priviledges which brought them in any power gain or profit as where they held any of the Kings antient Demesnes in Fee Farme and the King did cause his antient Demesnes to be Tallied the Lord or Fee Farmer under him would sue forth the Kings writ commanding the Sheriff that in case the lands were auntient Demeasne hucusque consueverit Talliari and was untill then accustomed to be Tallied that rationabile Tallagium ei habere faceret de libere Tenentibus suis in manerio praedicto sicut prius fieri consuevit he should cause the Freeholders of the said Manor to pay unto their Lord such reasonable Tallage as was accustomed And with as much or more reason were the Pourveyances or Compositions for them allowed and established as the hitherto never complained of in Parliament or accompted to be grievances Herezelda Herriot services or Herriots which Skene an Author of great authority amonst the Scots defineth to be gratuitae donationes quae ab husbando seu agricola datur domino suo ratione dominij reverentiae the free gifts or remunerations of the Tenants to their Lords in the reverence and respect which they bear unto them Which the Hollanders those grand contesters for Liberties doe call Laudemia and notably increase their small Revenues in lands with them And in England saith the learned Spelman Non nisi post mortem husbandi solvitur is only paid after the death of the Tenant and differs from a Reliefe for that a Reliefe is in case of Inheritance but an Herriot in a lesser Estate as for life c. and being formerly and in the Saxon times of a greater value by the giving or paying to their Lords Shields Swords Spears Helmets Horses furnished and money according to the several qualities and estates of the Tenants have been since by the example and indulgence of our Princes imitated by the Nobility and Gentry reduced to the best horse or beast and if none to the best houshold stuffe but so greedily attached or seldome remitted by the Landlords as the poor mans single Ewe Lamb in the parable of the Prophet Nathan to David or a Cow which should give the lamenting Wife and Children some nourishment and sustenance are seldome able to escape their Bailiffes or such as are sent to fetch them And if it be reason for the people to make such payments and contributions and observe such respects to their Landlords and subordinate Governors or Superiors as much and greater surely ought they to pay unto their Pater Patriae the protector and defender as well of those that receive those duties as of those that pay them and are and should be enough to awaken and rouze up their gratitudes and imprint in their memories the never enough to be requited benefits and blessings received by our Kings and Princes as much as if with a forfeiture upon the not doing or observing those Agreements they had been as strongly annexed and incorporated into our Lands and Estates as that of the Service or Conditions of Lands given to hold by the Tenures of Knight service which as some Civilians hold ipsi sanguini cohaerent are inherent in the very blood of the Tenants which being the most noble gentile rich and better sort of the people were when the Pourveyance was in being the most fit and likeliest to be charged with the Payments or Contributions towards it and were therefore in several Kings Reigns sometimes singly and often charged with publick Ayds or Taxes and very much more then other of the people as twenty shillings for every Knights Fee granted by Parliament to King Richard the first six and twenty shillings eight pence for every Knights Fee to King John and as much at another time to him towards his Warres in Wales twenty shillings upon every Knights Fee towards his Voyage into Normandy and forty shillings at another time and as much twice assessed in the Reigns of King Henry the third towards his Warres in Gascony twenty shillings upon every Knights Fee by Henry the fourth the Warres in Scotland by King Edward the first and Edward the second and of France by King Edward the third and the personal and chargeable services of most of the Nobility and Gentry therein probably procuring them some relaxation of not having their Fees or Lands so charged as formerly And besides other incidents belonging thereunto are by the Fewdists said to be so more then ordinarily tied up unto gratitudes and the more especiall duties and obligations thereof as such a Tenant forfeits his Lands in Fee Si percipiat magnum periculum domino imminere ultrò sine requisitione servicium non offert if he perceived any danger imminent or likely to happen to his Lord and did not of his own accord offer his service to prevent it or if his Lord were a Captive or in prison ought to contribute towards his redemption or if he should happen to fall into distress was to relieve him as farre say some of the Fewdall Laws which by stipulation or paction being not at the first agreed upon or included in the General words of defending the Lord and his Dignity was with many other their gratefull observances afterwards particularized and deduced from such customes as gratitude only had in process of time introduced and as much as amounted unto the Moiety of one years Rent or si dominum in acie periclitantem deseruerit if he left his Lord in the field and was ingratefull And by our Laws of England if
he or his heirs did not unto the Lord or any of his Heirs of whom the Lands were holden his services within two years was upon a Cessavit per Biennium brought by the Lord and no sufficient distress to be found to forfeit the Lands so holden And from no other source or original was derived Escuage for the Tenants by Knight service not attending the King or their Lords in the wars which as Littleton saith was because the Law intendeth and understood it that the lands were at the first for that end freely given them whence also came the Aide to make the eldest Sonne of the King a Knight and to marry the eldest Daughter and the like assistances or duties unto the mesne Lords as gratefull acknowledgements for the Lands holden of them which the Freeholders in Socage are likewise not to deny and were not at the first by any Agreement betwixt the King and his particular Tenants nor likely to be betwixt the mesne Lords and their Tenants when the Lands were given them for that some of the mesne Lords might probably be without Sonne or Daughter or both or any hopes to have any when they gave their Lands and their Grants doe frequently mention pro homagio servicio in consideration only of homage and service to be done And being called auxilia sive adjutoria Aids or Assistances to their Lords who could not be then in any great want of such helps when the portions of Daughters were very much in vertue and little in mony and the charges of making the eldest Son a Knight the King in those dayes bestowing upon all or many of them some costly Furres Robes and the other charges consisting in the no great expences of the furnishing out the young Gentleman to receive the then more martial better used and better esteemed honour of Knighthood were reckoned by Bracton in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the third inter consuetudines quae serviciae non dicuntur nec concomitantia serviciorum sicut sunt rationabilia auxilia amongst those customes which are not understood to be services nor incidents thereof if they be reasonable But were de gratia ut Domini necessitas secundum quod major esset vel minor relevium acciperet and proceeded from the good will of the Tenants to help their Lords as their occasions or necessities should require Et apud exteros saith Sir Henry Spelman non solum ad collocandas sorores in matrimonium sed ad fratres etiam Juniores milites faciendos And with some forreign Nations as the Germans old Sicilians and Neapolitans not only towards the marriage of the Sisters of their Lords but to make also their younger Sons Knights For the good will and gratefull retorns of the Subjects to their Kings and Princes and of the Tenants to their Lords were not only since the Norman Conquest but long before practised and approved by the Britains the elder and most antient Inhabitants of this our Island and other world as is manifest by the Ebidiu or Tributum paid per Nobilium haeredes Capitali provinciae domino the Heirs of the Nobility or great men after the death of their Ancestors to the Lords or chief of the Province like unto as Sir Henry Spelman saith our relief which Hottoman termeth Honorarium a free gift or offering And that learned Knight found upon diligent enquiry amongst the Welch who by the sins of their forefathers and injury of the Saxons are now contented to be called by that name as Strangers in that which was their own Country that that Ebidiu was paid at a great rate non solum è praediis Laicis sed etiam Ecclesiasticis not only by the Laity but the Church-men And being not discontinued amongst the Saxons was besides the payment of Reliefs attended with other gifts and acknowledgements of superiority as well as thanks for Gervasius Tilburiensis in the Reign of King Henry the second when the people of England had not been so blessed and obliged as they were afterwards with the numberless Gifts Grants and Liberties which in the successive Reigns of seventeen Kings and Queens after preceding our now King and Soveraign were heaped upon them found oblata presents gifts or offerings to the King to be a well approved Custome and therefore distinguished them into quaedam in rem quaedam in spem some before hand for hopes of future favours and others for liberties or other things given and granted by the King and the Fine Rolles of King John and Henry the third his Son will shew us very many Oblata's or Free-will Offerings of several kinds which were so greatly valued and heeded as King Henry the third and his Barons in or about the 23 year of his Reign which was thirteen or fourteen years after his confirming of Magna Charta did in the bitter prosecution and charge of Hubert de Burgo Earl of Kent and chief Justice of England demand an Accompt de donis xeniis of gifts and presents amongst which Carucagii or carriages were numbred spectantibus ad Coronam appertaining to the Crown And upon that and no other ground were those reasonable Lawes or Customes founded that the King might by the Laws of England grant a Corody which Sir Henry Spelman ex constitut Sicul. lib. 3. Tit. 18. defineth to be quicquid obsonii superiori in subsidium penditur provisions of victuals made for superiors Et ad fundatores Monasteriorum and to the Founders of every Monastry though by the Constitutions of Othobon the Popes Legat in the Reign of King Henry the third the Religious of those houses were forbidden to grant or suffer any to be granted or allowed è communi jure spectabat corrodium in quovis suae fundationis monasterio nisi in libera Eleemosina fundaretur it belonged of common right to grant a Corrody in any Religious houses of their foundation if not founded in Franke Almoigne disposuit item Rex in beneficium famulurom suorum corrodium c. likewise the King might grant to any of his houshold servants a Corrody in any houses of the foundation of the Kings of England and as many were in all by them granted as one hundred and eleaven which that learned Knight conceived to be an argument that so many of the Monasteries were of their foundation Et issint de common droit saith the learned Judge Fitzherbert in his Natura Brevium and also of Common Right the King ought to have a reasonable Pension out of every Bishoprick in England and Wales for his Chaplain untill the Bishop should promote him to a fitting Benefice Which if the compositions for Pourveyances being reduced into contracts and a lawfull custome were or should be no other then gratitudes may be as commendable and necessary as those well approved Examples of thankfulness recorded in holy writ of Abrahams giving King Abimelech Sheep and Oxen