HISTORY OF LOCAL RATES
IN ENGLAND
CHAPTER I
ANCIENT NON-STATUTORY RATES TO 1601
LaBorious students whose investigations have in-
terested scarcely any one but themselves have been
known to seek comfort in the assertion that truth
is valuable for its own sake. I do not believe that
this is the case. A great deal that is true is not
worth knowing. The most inveterate bore is often
the most truthful of men. All history should, I think,
have some practical aim. Some moral, some lesson
or guidance, should be afforded by it. Even if this is
not true of all history, it is surely true with regard to
economic history. It would be absurd to study a
subject so dry, not to say so odious, as local rates
except with a view to practical aims. We do not
study such subjects from a love of truth in the
abstract or to while away a wet Sunday afternoon,
but because there are practical controversies about
them, and we hope that we may learn something
which may be of assistance in these controversies.
Recognising this frankly, I have tried to collect to-
gether in this and the next four chapters those facts
only which explain the origin and progress of the