Lands with a
dye-house or a brew-house were devised by will along with their
dying or brewing implements. There were dairies making butter and
cheese.
The knights had 70% of the land, the nobles 10%, the church 10%,
and king 5%.
Citizens paid taxes to the king amounting to one tenth of their
annual income from land or wages. Merchants paid "forced loans"
and benevolences. The national government was much centralized and
had full-time workers on wages. A national commission of sewers
continually surveyed walls, ditches, banks, gutters, sewers,
ponds, bridges, rivers, streams, mills, locks, trenches, fish-
breeding ponds, and flood gates. When low places were threatened
with flooding, it hired laborers, bought timber, and hired carts
with horses or oxen for necessary work. Mayors of cities repaired
water conduits and pipes under their cities' ground.
The organ and the harp, precursor to the piano, were played.
All people generally had enough food because of the
commercialization of agriculture. Even the standard meal of the
peasant was bread, bacon, cheese, and beer or cidar, with beef
about twice a week. Also, roads were good enough for the transport
of foodstuffs thereon. Four-wheeled wagons for carrying people as
well as goods. Goods were also transported by the pulling of
barges on the rivers from paths along the river. A plough with
wheels was used as well as those without.
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