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