Tower and Town, February 2021 (view the full edition)An 'Aging' Economy!The suffix '-age' can be attached to many words and one of its many meanings is a tax or the right to levy a tax. With our national finances taking a dive perhaps Mr Sunak might be considering adopting some of the medieval tolls and taxes that would hit market towns like Marlborough. Consider being a medieval trader in Marlborough: to bring goods to sell in town transport is needed for which one could pay taxes of 'cartage' if hiring or 'carriage' if you own the vehicle. To traverse what are now the A4 or A346 through the forest land of Savernake you would pay 'cheminage' to Lord Cardigan's ancestors, or if approaching from Pewsey there might be 'peage' for permission to pass through Oare, or 'pedage' to be given care and safe conduct along the highway. Reaching Marlborough you could pay 'pontage' for crossing the bridge, 'murage' for maintaining the town or castle walls and 'pavage' for street maintenance. And now to actually selling your goods: 'stallage' for permission to erect a stall or shop, 'pickage' for clearing the piece of ground where you want to set it up, 'coverage' for actually using a stall, 'pesage' for your goods being formally weighed, followed by the 'lastage' tax on goods actually sold. A 'last' was a bulk measure equal to 12 sacks of wool or about 2.28 tons of grain, and the measure was also applied to goods in a ship's hold - the same concept as modern 'tonnage'. Any unprofitable cargo, ie. that loaded merely to keep the ship stable, would not be taxable and became known as 'ballast' - a derivative of 'bar last' (old Swedish: a bare load). However, back in Marlborough, if 'lastage' doesn't apply ie, you aren't selling bulk commodities, you would definitely be 'tithed' one tenth of your income or produce. Let's just hope Mr Sunak has not read medieval history. However, on consideration, we already have road fund tax (cheminage), tax on fuel (carriage), national insurance (pedage), parking charges (pavage), business rates for shops and stalls (stallage), rents (coverage), council tax (peage, pontage and murage), VAT (lastage) and income tax (tithes) so I guess not much has changed. Peter Noble |