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Edward 75,000 crowns, and an annuity of 50,000 crowns during their joint lives; this tranfaction was fo difgufting to the nation, that the king, no longer venturing to call on parliament for supplies, had recourfe to feveral means of extortion, which hiftorians have not ventured to commemorate, and among others, to a fevere investigation of titles to lands, thus compelling many to pay large fines for confirmation of their grants, and obtaining great fums from the clergy for reftitution of temporalities. The neceffities of this prince even drove him to the unworthy, though lucrative, refource of embarking in com

merce.

Paffing over the reign of Edward V., which on this occafion may be confidered as merely nominal; the fhort period in which Richard III. held the throne is to be confidered. It is remarkable for an act procured by the king himself, abolishing the mode of exaction called 'benevolences; and although Richard afterward levied a contribution in this form, fuch a violation of a new law, in thofe times when need was urgent, and the science of finance had made fo little progrefs, was of fmall importance.

Under the house of Plantagenet finance was little improved, but the principle, that no tax fhould be impofed without the confent of parliament, became in practice perfectly established, and the fetters of the feudal fyftem were confiderably light

ened.

HOUSE OF TUDOR. During the reign of Henry VII., the nation enjoyed repofe from civil wars, commerce was favoured by the difcoveries of Columbus and other adventurers, and by the difpofition of the king, who fought to deprefs the nobles and elevate the commons, and the activity and enterprise of the nation received a new and beneficial impulfe. To this king, tunnage and poundage were granted for life, and from his time the customs were confidered as a permanent branch of the royal income. Henry, whofe great paffion was avarice, obtained fuch large grants from parliament as to occafion infurrections in various counties: he revived the practice of extorting benevolences, under pretence that the laws made in the time of Richard III. were void, he being an ufurper, but the benevolence was no longer demanded at the king's mere pleasure, it received, like other taxes, the fanction of parliament: aids were granted to the crown, to marry his daughter, and make his fon a knight. Henry alfo received a very large portion with Catharine of Arragon, who was married first to Arthur his eldest, and afterward to Henry his fecond fon; and he increased his revenue by letting out his fhips to hire, and by lending out money on intereft. Yet all thefe refources were

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infufficient to allay his thirst of gold; he exerted in their utmoft rigour all the means of feudal exaction, and with the aid of Empfon and Dudley, two rapacious judges, pillaged his fubjects by profecutions under obfolete or forgotten penal laws. This king died in poffeffion of 1,800,000/., a fum equivalent to at leaft eight millions in thefe days, but in his last moments he difplayed the agonies of remorfe and terrors of guilt.

The ill-gotten treafure of Henry VII., was fpeedly dissipated by his prodigal fucceflor, grants of the moft enormous extent extorted from parliament, a poll tax rating every fubject in the kingdom, from the loweft, who had attained the age of fifteen, and who paid four pence, to the duke, who was affeffed at ten marks, and large fums raised by other means were infufficient for the king's expenditure. A commiffion was issued for exacting from the clergy four fhillings, and from the laity three fhillings and four pence in the pound; but when this attempt met with a refiftance which portended rebellion, the king difclaimed the commiffion, and added it to general caufes of Wolfey's unpopularity. From foreign potentates, the king obtained fome fupplies, particularly for the reftitution of Tournay to France; and he concluded a treaty, by which, in confidcration of 50,000 crowns per annum, to be paid to him and his fucceffors for ever, he agreed to renounce all title to the crown of France. Preffed by neccility, he adopted the expedient of debafing the current coin, and by threats of profecution and oppreffion, extorted large fums as benevolences, under the new name of amicable grants. Finally, after many intermediate acts of extortion on the ecclefiaftical body, he feized all the revenues, lands, and effects belonging to the monafteries and other religious and charitable establishments, and fome of the lands belonging to the bifhopricks; thefe, with the firft fruits and tenths, were infufficient to fatisfy his perpetual demands, occafioned by continual prodigality; and, however odious might be the oppreflion which Henry VII., exercifed under colour of law, that of Henry VIII., committed in defiance of it, was not more tolerable in its effects, although it permitted the formation of better hopes. Tyranny might expire with the tyrant, but a depraved fyitem of jurisprudence might extend its operation to a period incalculably remote. It may be incidentally obferved, that in this reign the profits of feudal fovereignty were abated by the devices of conveyancers; and although parliament endeavoured to reflore them to their ancient extent, the ftatutes formed for that purpose became the means of a directly oppofite end.

Edward VI. was prevented by his tender years from taking

a great

a great share in the affairs of government: his minifters, who were themselves rapacious, and in fome of their measures imprudent, increased the neceffities of the ftate, and fupplied them by injudicious means. Among the leaft commendable of their efforts were a poll-tax on fheep, and a duty on woollen cloth, both which, after a fhort trial, were repealed; they alfo debased the coin to an extent which proved highly prejudicial to industry and commerce. The trade of the kingdom was however benefited by the revocation of a charter granted by Henry III., to a body of foreign merchants, called the Corporation of the Steel-yard; the abufes of juftice were punished by heavy fines on judges who acted corruptly, and 400,000 crowns were obtained from France for the refloration of Boulogne. The debt of 240,000l. left unpaid at the deceafe of this monarch, arofe from the rapacity of his minifters, who mifappropriated the money raised to difcharge it; but had his days been prolonged, the people of England confidently hoped for the most bleffed effects from his great abilities and eminent virtues.

The crimes and errors which difgraced the reign of the bigotted Mary, were alfo the caufe of great pecuniary diftrefs, which could only be palliated, for it was never remedied, by the most oppreffive devices. Her principles were fo generally obnoxious to her fubjects, that when an application was made to parliament for a fubfidy, it was rejected; and many members declared, that it was in vain to bestow riches on a monarch, whofe revenues were thus wafted. She was therefore obliged to have recourfe to tyrannical extortions to replenish her exchequer. By means of embargoes, compulsive loans, and exactions of a fimiliar nature, the raised about 240,000l.; and two years afterwards, contrived to fit out by the fame methods an armament for the affiftance of her husband, Philip II. king of Spain; but finding it impoffible to fupply it with provifions, the feized, for that purpofe, all the grain which the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk could furnish, without making the owners any recompence. She imitated her brother's example, in endeavouring to borrow money on the continent; but her credit was fo low, that though he offered 14 per cent. intereft to the town of Antwerp, for the loan of 30,cool. fhe could not obtain it, until the compelled the city of London to join in the fecurity.

The long and glorious reign of Elizabeth, is remarkable for many admirable measures in finance, and tarnished by fome equally impolitic and tyrannical. Her occafions for money' feldom originated in any vicious or even imprudent measure or defign, and the means by which the obtained fupplies, were not the devices of her own invention, but powers legally vefted

in the crown by the conftitution as it then fubfifted. The caufes of expenditure in the time of Elizabeth were principally the national defence, efpecially against Spain; the government of Ireland, and conteft with the rebels there; the maintenance of a party in Scotland; the affiftance afforded to Holland in empancipating itself from Spain; the fupport of Henry IV. of France against his rebellious fubjects; the debts contracted by her predeceffors, and which the honourably discharged; and the regeneration of the debafed coin; these measures were all grand and patriotic, though the laft was not pursued without deviation; but, the remaining caufe of her expences, her bounties to favourites, was of a nature to leave fome ftain on her memory, especially as thefe were not the great and wife minifters who made her government profperous and glorious, but those individuals who, by the graces and accomplishments of their perfons, pleafed her tafte, or by their flattery foothed her vanity. This was indeed her confpicuous foible; to this may be referred the fplendid exhibitions of her court, and the ftudied attire of her own perfon, which reached fuch an excess, that she is faid to have left in her wardrobe more than 3000 fuits of various fafhions and colours.

Her refources were, the difmefne lands of the crown, which were much underlet, and which the frequently chofe to incumber rather than apply to parliament for money; the feudal prerogatives, which the exacted with as much rigour as the times would admit, infifting particularly on the right of Purveyance*, which the carried to a great extent; the customs, which were more than doubled during her reign, being farmed by Sir Thomas Smith at 50,000l. per annum, who, befides, refunded fome of the profits of his former contracts; and the first fruits, tenths, and church lands which Mary had alienated, but which were now refumed. To these must be added the grants of fubfidies, and fifteenths by parliament; the extortion of prefents from her dependents; the money paid to her by Catholics, and non-conformists, for difpenfations from the penalties incurred by not attending the established church; her fhare of the plunder obtained in war; a large fum which she received in virtue of a treaty refpecting Calais; and compulfory loans from her fubjects. This latter measure was undoubtedly tyrannical, and would give great offence in modern times, but it was then the undifputed prerogative of the crown recognized by parliament; Elizabeth had for her juf tification the notorious fact, that when she or her predeceffors had been fo far degraded by neceffity, as to require loans from

See Vol. I. page, 165.

any foreign city, as Hamburgh, Cologne, or Antwerp, the interest was ten, twelve, or even fourteen per cent. and the fecurity of the fovereign was deemed infufficient unless fupported by the city of London, or fometimes by the counsellors of state in their individual capacity. But when the punctuality of the queen in paying the monies fhe borrowed, both from her fubjects and foreigners, had established public credit; loans ceased to be compulfory, and the people were ready to pour forth their individual treasures to relieve the neceffities of the crown. In fact, Elizabeth well deserved the confidence of her people, by the evident proofs fhe exhibited, that not her own advantage, but theirs, was the rule of her conduct, and that, in those points where the carried the doctrines of prerogative to the greatest height, the dignity of the throne, and not perfonal eagernefs for dominion, was the caufe. Her contemporary Henry IV. is much celebrated for his benevolent wish, that every peafant in his realm might have a fowl in the pot on a Sunday; the trait exhibited by Elizabeth when the refufed a fubfidy, faying, "it was the fame thing whether the money was in the pockets of her fubjects, or in her own exchequer;' is perhaps equally endearing, and certainly more practically benevolent. Nor was this a folitary inftance of her patriotic felf-denial: fhe refufed, on another occafion, a benevolence offered by the commons, faying the had no need of the money. Such conduct, and fuch principles met with a merited return. When her crown was in danger, in confequence of the warlike preparations of Philip king of Spain, who fitted out, what he called, an Invincible Armada, for the conquest of England, and the capture of Elizabeth, the fpirit and loyalty of the people are hardly to be conceived. The nobility and gentry fitted out forty-three fhips at their own expence. London, and the other principal ports in England, voluntarily equipped double the number of veffels that was demanded. Formidable armies were collected without difficulty or murmur. Every direction given for the better fecurity of the coaft, met with a prompt and cheerful obedience; and each perfon, in proportion to his ability, furnished pecuniary affiftance, and gloried in an opportunity of displaying his attachment to his fovereign, and his zeal to preferve the liberties and independence of his country.

One profitable prerogative Elizabeth carried to an alarming extent; that of granting or felling monopolies; or the exclufive privilege of trading in fuch articles as were specified in the patents. The number and importance of the commodities which were thus monopolized, is almoft incredible. Among many others, hiftorians mention falt, iron, powder, cards, calf

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