After the feudal duties, rather in the order than in point of value, was the profit which arose from the sale of justice.  No man could then sue in the king’s court by a common or public right, or without paying largely for it,—­sometimes the third, and sometimes even half, the value of the estate or debt sued for.  These presents were called oblations; and the records preceding Magna Charta, and for some time after, are full of them.  And, as the king thought fit, this must have added greatly to his power or wealth, or indeed to both.

The fines and amercements were another branch, and this, at a time when disorders abounded, and almost every disorder was punished by a fine, was a much greater article than at first could readily be imagined,—–­ especially when we consider that there were no limitations in this point but the king’s mercy, particularly in all offences relating to the forest, which were of various kinds, and very strictly inquired into.  The sale of offices was not less considerable.  It appears that all offices at that time were, or might be, legally and publicly sold,—­that the king had many and very rich employments in his gift, and, though it may appear strange, not inferior to, if they did not exceed, in number and consequence, those of our present establishment.  At one time the great seal was sold for three thousand marks.  The office of sheriff was then very lucrative:  this charge was almost always sold.  Sometimes a county paid a sum to the king, that he might appoint a sheriff whom they liked; sometimes they paid as largely to prevent him from appointing a person disagreeable to them; and thus the king had often from the same office a double profit in refusing one candidate and approving the other.  If some offices were advantageous, others were burdensome; and the king had the right, or was at least in the unquestioned practice, of forcing his subjects to accept these employments, or to pay for there immunity; by which means he could either punish his enemies or augment his wealth, as his avarice or his resentments prevailed.

The greatest part of the cities and trading towns were under his particular jurisdiction, and indeed in a state not far removed from slavery.  On these he laid a sort of imposition, at such a time and in such a proportion as he thought fit.  This was called a tallage.  If the towns did not forthwith pay the sum at which they were rated, it was not unusual, for their punishment, to double the exaction, and to proceed in levying it by nearly the same methods and in the same manner now used to raise a contribution in an enemy’s country.