medieval-atlas/economic-development/306

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Burgh farms A major factor in the creation of the burghs was their potential as a source of monetary revenue. This derived from rents on burgh properties, petty customs levied on goods entering and leaving the burgh, charges on stalls set up in the burgh market, and fines on those breaking the burgh laws. But these revenues were expensive and difficult to administer, so it became common practice for the crown to lease or farm (also spelled ferm) the collection of some or all of a burgh's revenues for a fixed sum agreed in advance. Often the lease would be only for a year but sometimes it was for several years. Berwick was the first burgh, perhaps by 1231, to obtain an agreement from the crown to farm its revenues in perpetuity orfeu for the sum of 500 marks a year. Whether other burghs did so in the thirteenth century is unknown. The Wars of Independence wrought terrible damage on the Scottish burghs -the charters of most were destroyed -and it is likely that the value of many burgh farms was sharply reduced. The value of Berwick's farm was reassessed at 400 marks in 1320, two years after its recapture from the English. Aberdeen obtained its feufarm from the crown in 1319, at an annual rate of 320 marks. Edinburgh followed in 1329 with a feufarm fixed at 52 marks. From the perspective ofEdinburgh's later development, this seems extraordinarily low, but Edinburgh's prosperity grew out of Berwick's loss. In thirteenth-century and early fourteenth-century Scotland there was one major urban centre in each of the three economic regions into which the country was divided: Berwick in southern Scotland south of the Forth, Perth in central Scotland, and Aberdeen north of the Grampians (beyond the Mounth). These had acted both as the principal craft centres of their regions (hence the scale of their burgh farms), and as entrep6ts for inter-regional and international trade. By the 1320s the old order was breaking down. As the disparity between their export trade and burgh farms indicates, both Edinburgh and Dundee had become important entrep6ts without a corresponding growth as craft centres. Northern ---average payments £300 250 Central 200 -!(t/~ \ 150 ---r----~ " Inver ~ I ~1"1Linlilh90W o [:J Great customs paid on exports .§~\~ barto~ ---', 100 Febuary 1327 to June 1328 \J Renfrew Ru~r9Ien" 1!!1!!1 Average payments of burgh farm ') .... Ayr-~-~';"\"" ... Jooe 132910 Doeemb" 1331 J '~ _-, ~I 50 21.1 19.4 W lowQ 15.3 South-west 4.9 5.1 2.0 .·.. 1.0 tOm Berwick Aberdeen Edinburgh Dundee Perth Linlithgow Inverkeithing Stirling Average burgh farms and export traffic 1327 to 1331 Average payments of burgh farms 1327 to 1331 ASt 306

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