nhabitants, except retrospectively from the great survey of Domesday
Book, which displays the state of England under Edward the Confessor.
Some attention to commerce had been shown by Alfred and Athelstan; and a
merchant who had made three voyages beyond sea was raised by law of the
latter monarch to the dignity of a Thane.[37] This privilege was not
perhaps often claimed; but the burgesses of towns were already a
distinct class from the ceorls or rustics, and, though hardly free
according to our estimation, seem to have laid the foundation of more
extensive immunities. It is probable, at least, that the English towns
had made full as great advances towards emancipation as those of France.
At the Conquest we find the burgesses or inhabitants of towns living
under the superiority or protection of the king, or of some other lord,
to whom they paid annual rents, and determinate dues or customs.
Sometimes they belonged to different lords, and sometimes the same
burgess paid customs to one master, while he was under the jurisdiction
of another. They frequently enjoyed special privileges as to
inheritance; and in two or three instances they seem to have possessed
common property, belonging to a sort of guild or corporation, and in
some instances, perhaps, had a municipal administration by magistrates
of their own choice.[38] Besides the regular payments, which were in
general not heavy, they were liable to tallages at the discretion of
their lords. This burthen continued for two centuries, with no
limitation, except that the barons were latterly forced to ask
permission of the king before they set a tallage on their tenants, which
was commonly done when he imposed one upon his own.[39] Still the towns
became considerably richer; for the profits of their traffic were
undiminished by competition, and the consciousness that they could not
be individually despoiled of their possessions, like the villeins of the
country around, inspired an industry and perseverance which all the
rapacity of Norman kings and barons was unable to daunt or overcome.

[Sidenote: Towns let in fee-farm.]

One of the earliest and most important changes in the condition of the
burgesses was the conversion of their individual tributes into a
perpetual rent from the whole borough. The town was then said to be
affirmed, or let in fee-farm, to the burgesses and their successors for
ever.[40] Previously to such a grant the lord held the town in his
demesne, a