Search results
makes it impossible to assess the situation there, but some historians have heard the echo of Roman indirect taxation in later dues such as the charges levied on salt production. 20 The late appearance and long formative stage of kingdoms in England would, however, argue against the survival of widespread taxation from the late Roman period, but the fact that the Tribal Hidage appears to list tributes suggests that the raising of tribute was part and parcel of state formation. A law code from Wessex in the 690s ( The Laws of King Ine) talks of food rents, that is
Charles the Bald in the Edict of Pîtres (864). 27 As well as allowing for close control of coin, it also allowed, in theory, for the king and his moneyers to control the weight of coin and hence the amount of bullion in circulation. That tenth-century kings were very concerned with coinage can be seen in the Grately law code of King Æthelstan (924–39), which mandated that mints could be located only in burhs (fortified towns) and which contained swingeing penalties for coinage offences: loss of hand for the first offence and loss of life for the second. 28 Although