Note 750 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
It might perhaps be objected that the difference in favour of the free people ought to be explained by a depreciation of money which in process of time lowered the value of quit rents. But the explanation would hardly suit the age in which the Hundred Rolls were compiled. The phenomenon mentioned in the text may be observed in all the Cartularies, and there is no reason to think that the free rents which occur in them are already antiquated survivals of agreements which had lost their economic sense.