The Accounts of the Clerk of the Hanaper at the close of the reign of Edward I show that the average receipts approximated to £1000 yearly. This revenue was of course that derived from the “Fees of the Seal” alone, the greater portion being derived from writs for which the usual fee was 2s. Charters were divided into two classes, those paying the “small fee” of 16s. 4d. and those paying the “large fee” of 11 marks and 5s. It was this latter class which showed the least satisfactory returns owing to the anticipation of the revenue in the shape of Fines in the Chancery or Wardrobe by virtue chiefly of Privy Seals. It was the constant object of suitors to avoid the latter extortion and to pay only the “fees of the seal.” Petitions presented to the Crown to this effect were not successful in obtaining further indulgence than a distinction between writs “of course” and writs “of grace,” the former being only required to pay the “fees of the seal.” As to the latter it was replied that “men might not take away the King's profit herein,” though the commons had vainly endeavoured to prove that the Crown would gain by the proposed reform owing to the increase of writs and litigation. The fact is, however, that these cash receipts, though highly useful for replenishing the privy purse or satisfying importunate creditors, were not relatively as profitable as the bargains that could be made in another direction by way of Fine.