FIXED TALLAGE 141
the yearly tallage and go to the good near-by towns of Raven-
sered and Hull, which have good harbours growing daily, and no
tallage1'.1 Here we see a fixed sum being exacted, despite the
fact that towns like Hull, with great attractions to the serf, were
growing up and daily recruiting in part from dissatisfied men,
such as heavily tallaged Hedon could provide. Later on we shall
see how these burdens drove men to consider how they could
end such conditions.
Fixed or "at will", tallage was an important item in the
manorial income and had to be forthcoming. It was usually
exacted at Michaelmas,2 sometimes from each individual, but
often assessed on the vill or manor as a whole.3 The Gloucester
Cartulary gives us a great deal of information about the way in
which the tax was assessed. The serf pays "each according to
his land and the number of his animals", and these animals all
have their value;4 or sometimes he is assessed on the number of
acres he holds,5 or again the serfs are assessed "in communi",6
and probably left to work out the individual payments for
themselves.
Yet whatever method of collection was in force, tallage re-
mained a hated sign of inferiority, and men tried to get rid of it
in the only way possible to them. They "bought their blood"
free of this, as they had to do of other servile incidents, and found
it to their advantage to commute the payment for an added general
charge on each holding.7 Although this made little or no dif-
ference to their annual outgoings to the lord (assuming the
tallage to be steady) yet it meant that henceforth it formed but
one item in the rents of assize8—that lump sum each man paid
to bis lord, and which hid within itself who knows what of ancient
rents, charges, personal fines and dues. Once the serf had seen
Yorks Inguis. I, 216.
Eynsham Cart, n, 7; Glouc. Cart, in, 88, 100, 103, 119, 121, etc., where
it s called "the aid of St Michael**; Wore. Priory Reg. xcviii n. 12at 930:,
1040.
Davenport, op. cit. 46.
Glouc. Cart, ill, 50, 53, 57, 180, 188, 206, etc. Cf. Ramsey Cart, n, 52.
Glouc. Cart, ill, 100, no, 121, 129, etc.
Ibid, in, 97, 191; Eynsham Cart, n, 129.
E.g. Wore. Priory Reg. 19 a, 6ibt 666, etc.
For a discussion of the nature of redditus assiza see Levett, Econ, Hist.
Rev. I, 70-5, and Page, Cropland Estates, 91-9.