There is reason for believing that the determination here shown by the Council to help the poor had considerable weight in inducing the justices to make the wages assessments of the time. It was probably an immediate consequence of this letter that the Norwich justices drew up a new assessment, and reported the fact to the Council in Dec. 1630[372]. Moreover a very large proportion of the other assessments which have been preserved of the reigns of James and Charles belong to the years of scarcity, when the relief of the poor was the main object of the justices[373]. As money wages were rising throughout the century, new assessments were always in favour of the workman and would become most necessary in times when the price of food was high; they would also most readily be made when the necessities of the poor were great. [372] _Dom. State Papers_, Chas. I., Vol. 176, No. 1, 1st Dec. 1630. "And we have accordinge to the Statute appointed the wages of servants, laborers and workemen at such Rates as will conveniently recompence their paynes and yeld unto them competent maintenaunce." [373] Wages assessments have been printed for Bury St Edmunds in 1630 (_The English Historical Review_, April 1897); for St Albans in 1631 (A. E. Gibbs, _Corporation Records of St Albans_, p. 281); for Gloucester in 1632 (Thorold Rogers _History of Agriculture and Prices_, Vol. VI., p. 694). One also exists for Hertford made in 1631, _Hist. Man. Com. R._ XIV., App. viii., p. 160. It is perhaps worth while to notice one other instance of protection given to workmen by the Privy Council. During another time of trade depression, in the year 1637, Thomas Reignolds, manufacturer, made his workmen accept cloth instead of money for their wages. The men complained; the Council found it was a second offence and ordered Thomas Reignolds to be sent to the Fleet until he had paid his workmen double the amount they had lost, and their charges for bringing the complaint besides[374]. The punishment for truck inflicted by the Privy Council during the personal government of Charles I. was certainly severe. [374] _Privy Council Register_, 10th May, 1637. On 17th May an order was made for the release of Thomas Reignolds as he had then given the weavers full satisfaction. [Sidenote: 8. Summary.]