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- Title
Late Medieval Urban Prosperity: The Evidence of the Lay Subsides.
- Authors
Rigby, S. H.
- Abstract
The article critically appraises the literary work by economist A. R. Bridbury. Recent articles in the "Economic History Review" have defended the use of the taxation returns of 1334 and 1524 as evidence of urban prosperity in late medieval England. Bridbury argues that the evidence of these lay subsidies shows that late medieval England was making a more energetic use of its urban network than it had done. According to the author, the most straightforward use of the subsidies is to calculate a ratio between the tax payments of 1334 and those of 1524, as given in Bridbury's "Economic Growth." It is opined that these ratios are meaningless since the tax assessments in these two years were made in very different ways. The chief problem with the use of the tax ratios is the choice of towns to be used as yardsticks for growth and decline. According to the author, an alternative explanation of the growing proportion of urban wealth between 1334 and 1524, and of extremely low rural tax ratios, is that some bias in the taxation evidence exaggerates the growth of urban wealth.
- Subjects
ENGLAND; CRITICISM; BRIDBURY, A. R.; TAX administration &; procedure; URBAN policy; ECONOMIC history
- Publication
Economic History Review, 1986, Vol 39, Issue 3, p411
- ISSN
0013-0117
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2596348