17

The accounts of Mantes-la-Jolie, a town on the River Seine below Paris, include a receipt for a levy on transport of goods by river, a right granted to the town’s elders by King Philippe Auguste in the 13th century and allowing them to levy tolls on boatmen or merchants passing through the town by river. The 15th century registers of municipal proceedings and accounts have been preserved and make it possible to see how the levy was used, namely as a toll that made a substantial contribution to municipal revenue and as a way for the elders to create a network of relationships with the area surrounding the town, the Paris area, and Normandy. An analysis of the uses to which this levy was put demonstrates both the relative richness of sources from Mantes compared to the available documentation from other towns around Paris as well as the multiple challenges that can arise from the revenue generated by this tax for a small town in this area.