medieval-atlas/economic-development/301

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Taxation in medieval Scotland identical to the English and Welsh average of 64.4%. Compared with most other parts of Scotland, there was a large concentration ofreligious houses in and around the archdeaconry ofLothian, which suggests that the disproportionate scale of Scottish monastic estates is a myth; unlike the appropriation of benefices, which accounted for almost half the monastic assessment and at least 60% of par ishes. . Comparison with the English and Welsh assessments indicates a national average of £4.04 per square mile in England, £1.34 per square mile in Scotland and £0.90 per square mile in Wales. As might be expected, the Western Isles and the north and west Highlands were much the poorest areas recorded in the Nicholas IV as sessment, followed by the Welsh dioceses, Galloway, the Isle of Man, Devon and Cornwall. More surprising is the relative poverty of the north-western Midlands. In all these English and Welsh dioceses (other than Llandaff) ecclesiastical estates accounted for a quarter or less of the assessment. By contrast, in the richest English dioceses (apart from Lincoln and Norwich) ecclesiastical estates accounted for nearly half the assessment, well over half in the case of Ely. Remarkably, mile for mile, St Andrews was apparently wealthier than all but a handful of English dioceses. The P Sodor 0.08 £s per miie oi dioceses 5.00 and over 3.00 -4.99 M;~ JffR H:.....f-~ 1.50 -2.99 l.JJJw R-TM-T-M 0.50 -1.49 ~............., Under 0.50 from Lothian suggests that this was not disproportionately due to temporal revenues, although later evidence indicates that the concentration of ecclesiastical estates was significantly greater in the archdeaconry of St Andrews (see below, Taxed income, 1365 to 1373). It has often been suggested that in Scotland the Nicholas IV assessment was excessively high. At nearly a fifth of the English total its scale is remarkable -double the ratio of GDP today. But recent numismatic research and analysis of Coldingharn estate records tend to support its conclusions. The 'Taxation of Pope Nicholas' was rapidly abandoned in Scotland but in England and Wales, despite initial protests about its severity, it remained the basis for ecclesiastical taxation until the Reformation. StAndrews Glasgow Ranking of dioceses by parish by number, about 1300 Moray Dunkeld Isles Argyll Galloway 46 Brechin 23 Caithness 23 Lothian Deaneries Nicholas IV tithe in Scotland, 1291 to 1292 ASt 301

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