[473] In 1273 Henry de Tracy held the borough from the King in chief at a ferm of about £5 14s. 2d. There were 36 tenants whose rent amounted to 23s. 8d. and some tenants in a suburb who paid an uncertain rent, but generally about 6s. 8d. A market was held every Friday which yielded in tolls to the lord about £3 a year, and a yearly fair gave 10s. Fines, reliefs, &c., came to about 13s. 4d. a year. The wealth of the town increased after the building of the “Long Bridge” in 1280 over “the great hugy, mighty, perylous, and dreadful water named Taw,” and the increase of the cloth trade about 1321. Towards the close of the fourteenth century the legacies and accounts show that the burghers were laying up considerable wealth and doing a thriving trade. Hence probably the dispute as to the claim to profits. Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 206-213. See also case of Bridgewater, ibid. iii. 310-14.
[474] They even claimed the right of infang theof and outfang theof, and to be impleaded only in their own court. Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 206.
[475] Rich. Redeless, ed. Skeat, Early English Text Society, Text C, Pass. iii. 177, &c.
[476] Book of Precedence, E. E. Text Society, 105-108. Langland in Richard the Redeless describes the noble who “keepeth no coin that cometh to their hands, but changeth it for chains that in Cheap hangeth, and setteth all their silver in samites and horns;” and
“That hangeth on his hips more than he winneth
And doubteth no debt so dukes them praise.”
Richard the Redeless, Passus iii. 137-40, 147-8.
[477] Journ. Arch. Ass. xxvii. 467. Nott. Rec. ii. 425.
[478] The landowner of the fifteenth century was usually a mere landlord subsisting on his rents and not interested in the produce of the soil except as a consumer. He was only occasionally a trader. (Rogers’ Agriculture and Prices, iv. 2; see Berkeleys, i. 365-6; ii. 23; Paston, i., lxxxviii-ix., 416, 430, 431, 454; ii. 70, 106; iii. 430; Hist. MSS. Com. viii. 263; iv. 1, 464.) The really important classes were the new proprietors who rented land for trading purposes.
[479] See Fastolf, Paston Letters, i. 187-8.
[480] Treasures were apparently stored in different quarters for greater security. See Fastolf’s stores at Caistor. (Paston Letters, i. 416, 473-475; S. Benet’s, 468, 508; S. Paul’s, London, 493; Bermondsey, 474; White Friars, Norwich, ii. 56.) The religious houses had their reward in the form of benefactions for which masses were sung for the donor. (Hist. MSS. Com. iv. i. 461.) In the Paston house there was stored away over 16,000 ounces of silver plate, nearly 900 yards of cloth, about 300 yards of linen, and coats and hats without number. See also Hist. MSS. Com. vii. 537; viii. 93; Berkeleys, ii. 212. Plumpton Corresp. 10-11, 13, 37.