1007, and forty-eight thousand pounds in 1012. After which the greatest part of the country sunk under the power of the Danes."[1] Nor was this all. London itself was burnt; extraordinary inundations prevailed in different parts of the country, followed by contagious disorders destructive of both man and beast.
Charges upon vessels trading to London. Yet amid all the desolations of this unhappy reign, some attention was paid to maritime and internal commerce, and a law was passed commanding every proprietor of 310 hides[2] of land to furnish a ship for the protection of the State; the result being a larger naval force than had ever been collected before.[3] Fresh regulations were also made with reference to the coasting trade. Boats arriving at Billingsgate were required to pay a toll of a halfpenny, a penny, or four pennies, according to their size and build. Each vessel with wood left one piece as toll or tribute; boats with fish coming to London bridge (first mentioned, according to Spelman, in the reign of Ethelred)[4] paid either one halfpenny, or one penny, according to their size. Foreign merchants from Rouen, Flanders, and Liege, frequenting the Port of
- ↑ This was the well-known tax called "Dane geld," imposed, apparently for the first time, about A.D. 991; see also Saxon Chron., A.D. 994, 1002, 1007. Stow, p. 114, ed. 1600.
- ↑ Mr. Kemble, in an elaborate chapter on the "Hide," has determined that it was probably a little less than 100 statute acres of arable land. ("Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. c. 4, p. 88-121.) It is clear, however, that the word was often used for a much smaller, though indefinite extent of land. In Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (in voc. Hyde) many examples are quoted, showing that it was popularly held to be as much land as "could be tilled in a year by one plough."
- ↑ Saxon Chron., A.D. 1009.
- ↑ London Bridge is noticed in the Saxon Chronicle under A.D. 1016, The first stone bridge is said to have been commenced, A.D. 1176, and finished, A.D. 1209.—Stow's Survey, pp. 50, 52, 682.
