The Manor of Death(39)

'But how do you know which goods belong to which string or tally-stick?' demanded Hugh Bogge.

'The cords are of different colours and the tops of the sticks are marked with my own code,' snapped Capie. 'A notch for cloth bales, half a ring for wine kegs and so on. I go back to Elias Palmer as soon as the hold is empty and he writes it all down on his parchments.'

'What if there are two or more cogs unloading at the same time?' objected Luke. 'You can't keep all that in your head.'

'Mother of God, isn't that what I just complained about?' exclaimed the tally-man. 'I try to keep them separate by forbidding the shipmaster to start unloading until I've dealt with the previous vessel, but half the time they take no notice, as they either want to get to the nearest alehouse or catch the next tide to get back out to sea.'

The clerk pushed himself back into the discussion. 'What about goods that are being taken out of the port?' he asked.

John Capie shrugged. 'Not so important, as far as I'm concerned. Wool is the main problem, since our beloved king put a tax on its export. We don't get much tin through here these days; all the refined metal goes out through Exeter or Topsham, as the second smeltings and the assays are done there.'

The Keeper came back into the dialogue. 'So you tally up the bales of wool and report the number to the portreeve, is that how it works?'

'Yes. Elias is the linchpin of the system, being the only one who can write; other than the priests.'

Luke noticed his use of the plural. 'Priests? Is there more than one, then?'

The Customs man stared at him. 'Only old Henry of Cumba actually lives here - but the cellarer's man from the priory is here every week, keeping a very close eye on what's due to Loders.' The priory was just beyond Bridport, some ten miles over the border in Dorset.

'And what is due to them?' demanded de Casewold. John Capie looked at him as if he was a backward child. 'What's due? Jesus, they own the bloody manor, don't they! They claim a fifth of everything that is collected for the king, to go into the coffers of the prior.'

'Are you saying that they rob the royal Exchequer of a fifth of the king's dues?' squawked the Keeper indignantly.

Again Capie gave him a look that he usually reserved for the village idiot. 'Of course not! The king's tax is used as a measure - and then a fifth of that is added on for Loders.'

Hugh Bogge muttered something under his breath, which his master failed to catch. It was just as well, as it was a seditious comment about government and ecclesiastical extortion.

'So how is this money collected?' Luke wished to know.

The tally-man shrugged again. 'Don't know; nothing to do with me! I think Elias sends a list up to the sheriff, who collects it as part of the county farm from all the merchants who import and export.'

The 'farm' was the six-monthly accumulation of taxes from every part of Devon, which the sheriff had to take to Winchester in person, in bags of coin in the panniers of packhorses. Here it was paid into the Exchequer, which got its name from the chequered cloth on the treasury clerks' table that was used to facilitate counting the silver pennies that were the only form of currency. The size of the farm was set annually by the Curia Regis for each county - and if the sheriff could collect more than that, he was entitled to keep the difference, which made the post of sheriff so much sought after by barons and even bishops. Some even held multiple shrievalties in several counties at once. However, after the depredations of his predecessor, Richard de Revelle, old Henry de Furnellis was hard pressed to collect the minimum required.

'So it's all down to Elias Palmer as to how much he enters in his accounts,' said the Keeper, cynicism oozing from his voice. 'You can't read, so you've no idea what he's writing down in his accounts.'

'Not my problem, sir! I'm paid a pittance to record as much as I can manage - what happens after that is none of my business, and I don't want it to be.'

De Casewold changed the subject somewhat, waving a hand at the locked doors behind the tally-man. 'So what exactly is kept in these sheds?' he demanded.

Capie moved away from the doors and looked at the barn-like structures as if he had never noticed them before. 'In here? Why, the goods that have either been unloaded and not yet been delivered to the owners - or the stuff that is waiting for the cog that is to carry them abroad.'

Luke de Casewold looked dubious at the explanation. 'A complicated task, sorting all that. Who is responsible for it?'

'The portreeve, of course. No one else can check the goods against the manifest lists, for only he can read them. Tally-sticks and knotted cords are no good for identifying a pile of kegs or bales.'

The Keeper felt that Elias Palmer was in a position to make or break the administration of Axmouth, as he seemed in a position to control every aspect of the trade there.