[15] Pedro de Ayala, writing to Ferdinand and Isabella in July, 1498 (Spanish Calendar, i. 210), divides the revenue of James IV into six main heads—(1) Leases of Crown lands, held for three years and redeemable by a fine. (2) Customs. "The import duties are insignificant, but the exports yield a considerable sum of money, because there are three principal articles of export, that is to say, wood, hides, and fish." (3) The profits of justice. James's predecessors "farmed it to certain persons called justices.... This king does not like to farm the administration of the law, because justice is not well administered in that way." (4) The ordinary feudal incidents—reliefs, wardships, and marriage. (5) Vacant bishoprics, abbacies, &c. (6) Rent in kind, from meat and poultry, and especially from fisheries. Only one of these, namely, customs duties, could have been regulated by the Estates, and there is on record no instance of any attempt to do so. The revenue was collected on the English system, described in the Dialogus de Scaccario. The sheriffs and the king's stewards collected the sums due in the counties, and the bailiffs and "custumars" had charge of the amercement of the burghs and the collection of the customs. The main differences between the system in Scotland under James IV and that of England under Henry VII is that the Scottish Exchequer Court was not so fully organized as the English, and that the system of checks on the honesty of the sheriffs, &c., was much less elaborate. All the sources of revenue were, as a rule, "farmed out"; the king received a composition, and the actual collector made as much profit as he could.
[16] Gilbert Stuart, Of the Public Law and Constitution of Scotland, note xxviii.
[17] Hill Burton, History of Scotland, ii. 82.
[18] The evidence upon which the theory of popular representation is based is as vague as the theory itself. Eadmer (Hist. Nov. p. 97, Lond. 1623; cf. also p. 134) tells us of an election, in 1107, of a bishop of St. Andrews "by Alexander, king of Scotland, the clergy, and the people." The Book of Scone (Liber de Scon. p. 1) describes the re-foundation of the abbey in 1114-15 by King Alexander. It is confirmed by his wife and nephew, several bishops, and a number of nobles, "consilio proborum hominum." Ten years later, at the foundation of the abbey of Dunfermline (Registrum de Dunfermelyn, p. 3; cf. also the Charters of Holyrood), we find a phrase employed to which some importance has been attached. Bishops and nobles confirm as usual, but with the acquiescence of the people and clergy. The form "clero etiam acquiescente et populo" is of frequent occurrence. The phrase "all the community of the kingryk" has been treated in the text. The similar phrases "probi homines" and "clero acquiescente et populo" are simply common technical terms belonging to the Chancery imitated by the Scottish scribe. The latter does not even imply consultation, and the former means the smaller tenants-in-chief. In the Laws of the Burghs we find it used for the leading men—the optimates—of the town. It is not a popular term at all. On the other hand, too, we have councils described in quite different terms. In 1174 William the Lion held a council at Stirling, and asked an aid from his "optimates" (Fordun, viii. 73). In 1190 the "prelati et proceres" of Scotland gave the king 10,000 marks (Fordun, viii. 62). On the death of Alexander III the guardians describe themselves as "de communi consilio constituti" (Hist. Doc. relating to Scotland, i. 95), while Rishanger tells how "omnes Scoti" chose Wallace. The change in the political circumstances is sufficient to account for whatever importance may be attached to the words. It is true that Fordun, speaking of the same period, frequently uses the word Estates ("communitates"). But Fordun was not a contemporary, and the word had acquired a technical meaning by his time. Moreover, he uses the word very loosely. Sometimes he intends by it the land itself, as when he tells us how the English ravaged it.
[19] Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, i. 371, &c.
[20] Ibid. i. 377. The use of the word "community" appealed more strongly than anything else to the older historians.
[21] Cf. Ancient Laws of the Burghs of Scotland (Burgh Record Soc.).
[22] So important was their meeting that when Edward I of England held a parliament at Newcastle in 1292, and some question arose regarding their privileges, the four burghs were consulted, and the decision was made in conformity with their laws and customs (Rot. Parl., i. 107).
[23] Fordun, viii. I.
[24] Thoughts on the Origin of Feudal Tenures and the Descent of Ancient Peerages in Scotland, by George Wallace, 1783.