1189

This is the year in which the Third Crusade was launched.

In order to finance the tremendous expense of the Crusade, the Jews were assessed higher rate of taxation than rest of England: i.e. Jews were taxed 1/4 of their moveable property while rest of England was assessed 1/14.

Although Jews constituted less than 1/4% of English population, the Jews contributed 8% of the total income to the Roayl treasurery.

However, the pro-Christian ideology and zealotry that is part of any Crusade resulted in some rioting in England. As a direct consequence of that rioting, some Jewish businesses burned in London. The destruction of Jewish assests was bad news for the Jews, of course, but it was also bad news for the Crown who viewed the Jews' lost income as lost taxation revenue. That is, if the Jews lost property, the Crown lost the taxes they could levy against that property.

So in order to protect what had become a valuable financial resource, the Crown established The Exchequer of the Jews.

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