Note 155 — IV
Reading edition
The character of this tax, indeed its very existence, is questioned. Matthew of Westminster (422), mentions a tax on the towns of “the sixth penny.” It may have been either a tallage or a tax by special negotiation, or it may have been granted by the shire representatives on the theory that the towns were included within their shires, though this is most unlikely. See Taswell-Langmead, Eng. Const. Hist. 199; 2 Stubbs, Const. Hist. Eng. 132; Stubbs, Sel. Chart. 480, 483-484.