National comparison
The Reverend Branson then went on to compare Yateley's taxation with some other English towns, both local and farther afield:
Portsmouth | 252s 0d | £12.60 |
Wokingham | 90s 0d | £4.50 |
Leeds | 73s 0d | £3.65 |
Yateley | 72s 2d | £3.61 |
Liverpool | 40s 0d | £2.00 |
Petersfield | 34s 0d | £1.70 |
He noted that the oldest well-established towns had the highest rate. Portsmouth was considered a new town in 1334 and was assessed at a rate only one quarter of Winchester, the capital of King Alfred's Wessex.
Leeds was assessed at exactly the same rate as Yateley, whereas Liverpool, founded in 1207, paid only just over one half of Yateley's rate.
We must remember that this 1334 taxation assessment was made only a few years before the Black Death wiped out perhaps one third of England's population.
From Reverend Branson's analysis we must conclude that either Yateley was an old well-established town with an historic high rate, or Yateley's inhabitants in 1334 together possessed an impressive value of movable goods.
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