Series 5 > Miscellany [of the Scottish History Society] XIII

74
A MEMORANDUM ON THE CUSTOMS, 1597
the quantity, and Ayr enjoyed the same favourable rate of Is per
dozen. Edinburgh, which exported more than four times as much as
the other ports combined also paid only Is per dozen. 1 In 1597 this
was replaced by a more realistic figure of Is per ell, with the ell
valued at 1 Os.
Salmon: The duty of 2s 6d in the pound on salmon ‘bocht be
strangers’ imposed in March 1425 was extended to all exports in the
following year.2 By 1466 the actual rates in force were 3s per barrel
for salmon and Is 6d for grilse. A proclamation in February 1481
raised the duty from 3s to 4s at which figure it remained thereafter.3
The barrels, twelve of which made a last, were of Hamburg measure,
use of which was made obligatory by an act of 1478.4 The 1597 tariff
reimposed the duty of 2s 6d in the pound for foreigners, while Scots
were to pay 37s 6d per barrel (£22 per last).
Fish: The memorandum makes a brief reference to keeling (cod)
as paying duty at 2s in the pound in 1429, but in 1469 the custumar of
Berwick was ordered to collect 2s per long hundred.5 It omits herrings
where the duties imposed in 1424 had ceased to apply by 1482 when a
proclamation raised the duty on a barrel of herring from 6d to 1 s. The
1597 tariff reinstated the duties prescribed in 1424: Id per long
thousand (1200) fresh herring, 4s per last (12 barrels) salt herrings (6s
if barrelled by foreigners) and 4d per long thousand on red herrings.6
Other commodities: The only commodity mentioned is salt, where
duty was ordered to be collected in 1467 at 2s in the pound. The effect
was to double the actual rate from Is to 2s per chalder, where it
remained until the 1560s. By 1564 salt exported from Pittenweem was
paying 4s per chalder, though Edinburgh kept to the old rate for a few
years longer.7 By 1572, however, all exported salt was paying 4s,
which continued under the 1597 tarriff. The Edinburgh customs book
1 ER, xvii, 457-64. The editors have converted from roman to arabic numerals
without allowing for the fact that ‘c’ represents a Tong’ hundred (120, not 100); for
the correct figure multiply complete hundreds by 1.2. See P. Gouldesbrough, ‘The
long hundred in the exchequer rolls’, Scottish Historical Review, xlv, 79-82
2 1424/5 c 19, 1426 c \,APS, ii, 8, 13.
3 ER, vii, 430, ix, 148.
4 1478 c. 9, APS, ii, 119.
5 ER, iv, cxxviii, vii, 379. The Latin word for cod, mulones, seems to have mystified
the editors of the Exchequer Rolls, see ER, ix, Ixxiv. The 1597 tariff set the duty at
4s per long hundred.
6 1424 c. 22; APS, ii, 8. The same act imposed a duty of 12d in the £ on exported
livestock. This was also continued by the 1597 tariff.
7 ER, vii, 36, 286, 503, 591, xix, 273, 295, xx, 98.