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 1921 'ADVENTUS VWECOMITUM 1258-72 493 the part of the sheriffs to make payments than to render account. Moreover, the results obtained from the two sets of tables are in effect the same. Both at the receipt and at the exchequer board, the sheriffs were showing great reluctance to perform their duties between 1258 and 1272. These were critical years at the exchequer, years during which the whole financial machinery appears to have been on the verge of collapse. This collapse actually took place during the period 1263-8. The subsequent recovery was a difficult process, only rendered possible by the energetic reforms undertaken by the barons of the exchequer in the next seventeen years. Even in spite of their efforts, the customary revenue of the Crown never entirely recovered from the blow which it received at this date. In the examination of the sheriffs' payments into the exchequer of receipt, the periods chosen are exactly the same as for their attendances there. The sums given, it is necessary to remember, are those paid by the sheriffs of normal counties only : the pay- ments by boroughs on account of their ferms are not included. As was the case in the attendances at the upper exchequer, so also here, the sheriffs frequently failed to attend for several years together during the third and fourth periods. Apart from this fact, the actual county payments are very much smaller after Michaelmas 1263. * Certain counties maintain, however, a fairly high annual average. Lincolnshire, for example, during the years 42-47 Henry III, pays on an average each year £262 2s. 2Jd., and in the years 48-56 Henry III £145 18s. U. Yorkshire, again, makes an average payment of £134 85. lid. in the former period, and £97 3s. 6d. in the latter. In the case of counties that are really irregular the payments after 1263 are much smaller. Thus Surrey and Sussex averaged £52 65. Id. at the earlier date, but only £13 16s. 3|d. at the latter. London and Middlesex furnish us with an extreme instance. The sheriffs, in this case, appeared regularly at the exchequer of receipt every year, yet in the fifteen years between 1258 and 1272 made only one payment of £49 13s. 3d. in 43 Henry IIL Throughout the whole of the five periods these sheriffs made only four payments, yielding a total of £298 9s. 3d. Of these, two were paid after Edward I's accession. 2 If we examine the figures for the actual payments in our five periods and compare them with the attendances, we find a very interesting state of affairs. 1 An interesting set of writs, issued by the exchequer between 1260 and 1263, suggests that even at this date the officials were concerned about the financial position. See. King's Remembrancer's Memoranda Rolls 43 & 44 Hen. Ill, m. 6, 44 & 45 Hen. Ill m. 5 d, and 46 & 47 Hen. Ill, mm. 4 d, 5, 15. 2 Cf. King's Remembrancer's Memoranda Roll 49 & 50 Hen. Ill, m. 2d, where we are told that the sheriffs were delivered to the marshal for non-payment.