The origins of the English Exchequer go back to the reign of Henry I (1100-1135). It had already reached a remarkably sophisticated level by 1130, the date of the oldest Pipe Roll Almost all the practices evident in successive Pipe Rolls, from the first year of Henry II's reign (1154-1189) onwards, had been firmly established by that time For the reign of Stephen (1135-1154), however, we have no Pipe Rolls at all, and this fact has given rise to the difficult question of whether the Exchequer even existed during his reign, which is usually referred to as "anarchy" Many historians have tried to find some trace of King Stephen's Exchequer in the Pipe Rolls of the early years of Henry II's reign Although their arguments often do not seem to be very profitable, Henry II's Pipe Rolls are not totally useless for the study of King Stephen's Exchequer. In 1155 or 1156 or 1157, the county farm was paid by tale for Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Sussex, Shropshire, Somerset and Devon (Rutland is an exception) (see Map I), but the by-tale payments for these counties were converted into blanch payments as soon as possible (see Map II). In 1130, the county farm was paid by weight or in blanch basically (and probably charged in blanch), therefore, the by-tale payments in the early years of Henry II's reign should be regarded as a retrogression of the Exchequer practice which occurred during the period of "anarchy" Nevertheless, it is also very likely that the Exchequer audits continued to be made for these counties, even in Stephen's reign, probably by tale, because Henry II would have asked them to pay the farm in blanch if they had not paid the farm at all in Stephen's reign Interestingly, the counties in which the county farm was paid by tale in 1155, 1156 or 1157 (i e., Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Sussex, Shropshire, Somerset and Devon), and those in which the county farm was paid in blanch in 1155 (1. e., Kent, Surrey, Huntingdonshire, Leicestershire, Lnicolnshire, Yorkshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Staffordshire), demonstrate a regular distribution two compact blocks in eastern and western England This as in contrast to the counties for which no Pipe Roll records remain for 1155 (i. e, Hampshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Rutland and Derbyshire), or for which the payment method of the county farm was not specified for 1155 (i e, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Worcestershire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex). This distribution coincides fairly well with the political geography of the "anarchy", which was recently expounded by Dr Edmund King(T. R H. S., 1984). According to him, even in the "anarchy", the eastern and western regions in England were effectively controlled by King Stephen and Empress Matilda, respectively If these facts are taken into account, the conclusion might be that, even in the "anarchy", the eastern counties continued to account for the county farm in Stephen's Exchequer, probably at Westminster, while the western counties paid into Empress Matilda's Exchequer probably at Bristol.
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