In the earlier history of the English parliament the payment of commoners or representatives of the people was for long the practice.
The shires and boroughs they represented paid them for their services, and reimbursed the expenses they were put to in journeying to and from the place of meeting.
Its gradual abandonment was due first to the difficulty of securing representatives in the early parliaments.
Men of business were unwilling to detach themselves from their affairs, as travel was slow and dangerous; in addition to the perils of the journey there was the almost certain knowledge that a safe return from parliament would be followed by the ill-will of the member's neighbours, for every meeting of parliament was but a device on the part of the sovereign for inflicting some new form of taxation, and a refusal to vote such taxation was but to incur the royal displeasure.
On these occasions, the resolutions simply specified an adequate allowance; but on 7 March 1906, a resolution was carried (by 348 votes to 110) in favour of an allowance at the rate of £300 per annum, prior to that, the amount was 40 guineas per annum.