In this year a new Book of Rates was issued for the better balancing of trade in relation to the impositions in foreign parts upon the native commodities of the kingdom.'' This added about 70,000l. to the revenue,' and the Book of Rates was subsequently altered in various items of charge." The dissolution of the short parliament, which met on April 13, 1640, on May 5, in consequence of the refusal of the commons to proceed at once to the question of supply, left the question of the right to levy duties at the ports to be settled in the fifth parliament of the king, which met in November. Eventually, in June, 1641, the king gave his assent to a Bill for a grant of tunnage and poundage for two months. After which the subsidies were continued from time to time by a series of Acts passed for the purpose. The increase in commerce raised the yield of this revenue in 1641 to little less than half a million.3 1 Lord Keeper Coventry, to the privy council in May. 2 Foedera, xx. 118. 3 Roberts. Treasure of Traffic published in 1641, Anderson, Commerce, ii. 391; Sinclair, Hist. Rev. i. 260. CHAPTER II. DIRECT TAXES, INCLUDING FIFTEENTHS AND TENTHS, THE The old system of fifteenths and tenths and subsidies continued. Grant of six fifteenths and tenths and four subsidies in 1605, and of one fifteenth and tenth and one subsidy in 1609. Grants in 1620 and 1623. The last of the fifteenths and tenths. Grant of five subsidies to king Charles in 1623. Six subsidies for the northern army granted in December 1640 and February 1641. Grant, in July 1641, of a poll tax for the disbandment of the northern army. FIFTEENTHS and tenths and subsidies in the old form continued to be used under the Stuart kings, a fifteenth and tenth, after the deduction of 6,000l. in relief of decayed towns, yielding between 29,000l. and 30,000l. ; a subsidy now only about 70,000l. A grant from the clergy always accompanied a grant from the laity, and was confirmed in the usual manner by parliament. A clerical subsidy of 4s. in the pound continued to produce about 20,0007. The first grant to king James, made by the parliament that so narrowly escaped the gunpowder plot, consisted of six fifteenths and tenths and three subsidies from the laity and four clerical subsidies;1 and three years after this, in 1610, after the remonstrance against the impositions and Salisbury's declaration of 1 3 Jac. I. cc. 25, 26. the king's intention to revoke those that resembled internal taxes, another fifteenth and tenth and one lay and one clerical subsidy were granted.1 In 1620 there was a grant, for assistance to the new king of Bohemia, of two lay, and three clerical, subsidies; 2 and in 1623, after the abolition of the monopolies, the king received three fifteenths and tenths and three subsidies from the laity, and four subsidies from the clergy,3 towards the expenses of the preparations for war with Spain about the treaties for the marriage of Charles and the Infanta and the restitution of the Palatinate. The fifteenths and tenths granted in 1623 proved to be the last; for though, subsequently, in the first parliament of king Charles, after two lay and three clerical subsidies had been granted, a motion was made to increase the grant by the addition of two fifteenths and tenths, the motion was rejected; and the grant of three fifteenths and tenths made in the next parliament, in 1626, was not passed into law before the dissolution. After the disappearance of the fifteenth and tenth from the fiscal list, in which it had occupied so prominent a position since the settlement of 1334, the subsidy still continued to be used; and in June 1628, after the repression by the Petition of Right of the attempts to collect revenue by means of semi-compulsory gifts, benevolences and loans, five lay and five clerical subsidies were granted to the king,5 for Buckingham's intended expedition to Rochelle in his duellum with Richelieu. While government was carried on without a parliament, 1629–1640, the place of subsidies in the tax list was occupied by the king's ship-writs; but after the suppression of that form of exaction in the fifth parliament of the king, the old form of taxation was revived. Two subsidies were granted for the relief of the army and the northern parts of the kingdom on December 10, and two more on December 23.1 These were accepted by the king in February, 1641, and two more were granted on the 20th of that month.2 In all, the six subsidies would produce about 420,000l.; but this money came in slowly. In July a poll tax was voted, as a more ready means of obtaining the money required for the disbanding of the northern army; and speedy payment was urged in a proclamation issued by the king.3 6 This tax was charged upon persons according to their ranks, dignities, offices, callings, estates, and qualities,' as follows:-For every duke, 1007.; marquess, 801.; earl, 607.; viscount and baron, 407.; knight of the bath, 301.; knight bachelor, 201.; esquire, 107. ; every gentleman spending 100l. per annum, 57.; persons having an income of 50l., 40s.; 20l. per annum, 5s.; 107. per annum, 2s.; 5l. per annum, ls.; with a poll tax of 6d. for all other persons. It produced about 400,000l. 1 Com. Jour. 11. 2 16 Car. I. cc. 2, 4. 3 Foedera, xx. 463. 4 16 Car. I. c. 9. From Best's Farming Book, p. 93, we learn that in Elmswell, in Yorkshire, which was assessed to a subsidy at 107. in bonis, the poll was assessed as follows:-'There was 51. 138. 6d., whereof the lord of the manor paid 57. 18.; eight of his servants, 4s.; William Whitehead 1s. for his land, and 18. 6d. for his three children. All the rest of the farmers in the town paid only per poll, 6d. for themselves, their wives, and as many of their children as were above sixteen years of age. The assessors in every town were made also collectors of all such sums as were to be gathered within their several towns and constableries, and were assigned to pay the said moneys at the commissioner's house, some at one commissioner's house and some at another.' |