medieval-atlas/economic-development/302

Transcription

Taxation in medieval Scotland To help raise the ransom of David n, the Scottish Parliament enacted in 1357 that annual revaluations be made of all revenues: benefices, rents, goods, crops, livestock and all other possessions. All classes were to be assessed and taxed. The only items to be exempted from taxation, but not assessment, were white sheep, domestic horses, oxen and household utensils. Taxes were levied every year from 1358 to 1360. There was then a break until 1365, apart from annual tithes of Church income that had been granted by the Pope. In 1366, with the English government threatening hostilities if the ransom was not discharged within four years, a major review became necessary. In May 1366, it was ordered that all old and new assessments of lay and ecclesiastical lands and revenues were to be collected and presented to parliament. Parliament met at Scone in July to consider the position and agreed that further assessments be made of the goods of burgesses and husbandmen (tenant farmers) -these later assessments have not survived. When the true value of all goods throughout the kingdom was known, it was enacted that a general contribution be levied. Full comparison with the Old Extent (see above) was not possible in 1366. A reduction of 21 % had been made in the Old Extent of ~ ~ benefices for the diocese of Glasgow, because Annandale and many parishes in the deaneries of Eskdale and Teviotdale were 'subject to the king of England'. For the same reason, in the deanery of Merse many parishes had been revalued by estimate, for comparative purposes, and Berwick had been excluded. Comparison with tax returns of the I 320s indicates that at least 73% (by value) of estates in the sheriffdom of Berwick were under English occupation, 67% of those in both Roxburgh and Selkirk, and 31 % in Dumfries. These reductions have been reflected in the valuations per square mile in the remaining maps of this series. A further problem was that in Argyll the Lord of the Isles, the 'Lord Steward of Scotland' and John of Lorn had prevented the making of any assessment of their estates: the old extent of these lands was presented but not. their current value. Resistance in Argyll is likely to have been matched in the sheriffdom of Inverness, where the earl of Ross was in rebellion and where the Lord of the Isles also had extensive estates; as there is no qualification in the 1366 record of Inverness, it may be that here too revaluations had been made by estimate. 4.00 and over K""":""