Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/505

 and defence of England and Ireland were maintained for the comparatively moderate sum of 6,990l. The officers of customs at London and the outposts received 821l. for their services, but the salaries of "dukes, earls, knights, esquires, and the abbess of Shene," amounted to 7,751l. A sum of 4,370l. was likewise charged on the customs for "annuities," but no mention is made of how they were appropriated. A lump sum of 3,507l. appears to have been paid, without distinguishing the items, "to the king's and queen's household and wardrobe; the king's works; the new tower at Portsmouth; the clerk of the king's ships; the king's lions, and the constable of the tower; artillery; the king's prisoners, ambassadors, messengers, parchment, and the Duchess of Holland;" —a curious enough medley, but perhaps not more promiscuous than some of the estimates of our own time, frequently smuggled in one sum through Parliament, from the difficulty and delicacy of defending many of them if produced in detail.

Immediately before the close of the reign of Henry V., an Act was passed requiring all ships to be measured according to prescribed forms, so as to ascertain their tonnage or capacity, and preclude the possibility of one ship deriving advantage over another. By a clause in this Act, the barges, or "keels," then employed in the conveyance of coals from the colliery wharves to the ships in the Tyne were also required to be measured and marked by the Crown. From that day, until now, every keel contains 21 tons 4 cwt. of coals, and in the north of