ABSTRACT
The twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw a steady expansion in the number, size and trade of towns which were typically sited on ancient Roman settlements, around castles and abbeys, at the junctions of highways and at ports. Town officials and town courts needed letter carriers and many were employed at times by government. The receipt of mail required rewarding visiting messengers while the dispatch of their own mail obliged them to have their own messengers. The services of the town carrier would be sufficient for much private mail but not for communications with important persons. The king saw the granting of charters as an important source of revenue, so towns became new places on which to levy taxes often with the firma burgi fixed for a period of years and then renegotiated at a higher rate. The taxes were extended in 1303 to a range of imports, involving much correspondence and regular returns to the Exchequer.
