Finance (more detail) James' reign Flashcards
How much debt did James inherit?
£420,000.
What did Elizabeth do to make herself ‘solvent,’?
She gave a forced loan in the 1590s of £100,000.
What were methods of royal revenue?
- People could pay subsidies. Elizabeth got £137,000 but James only got £72,500 as only 10% of people payed tax.
- Rental income - land could be sold off.
- Customs levies and duties determined a book of rates, determining half the royal income by 1611.
- Wardship - a system the head of state abused.
How much did James spend during peacetime?
£400,000 compared to Elizabeth’s £300,000
Who did James promise he would ‘change’ to?
The privy council in 1611.
What did James spend his money on?
Coronations.
The family.
£116,000 for Henry’s funeral of 1612.
The Cost of the Wardrobe which rose to £36,000.
£100,000 to run the Royal Household, including the stables and food courts.
1603-07 £68,000 on goods.
By what year was royal debt nearly a million?
1618.
Who became Lord Treasurer and what books did he issue?
Robert Cecil, having worked with Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset, became Lord Treasurer.
1604 - Book of Rates - farms out customs for payments where tax collectors are to pay £120,000 annually.
1608 - Issued again to extend tariffs, adding £70,000 to the crown. Reduced royal debt as a result.
1608 - Book of Bounty - expensive land placed in entail and levies for gifts and payments were agreed on.
What was the Great Contract?
1610
Cecil negotiated with Parliament, requesting that if James gives up wardships and purveyance, they offer a subsidy of £200,000 annually. Proposition rejected as James felt the subsidy was not worth the consequence of no purveyance and wardships, and Parliament distrusted James, knowing he would continue to partake in these.
Who replaced Cecil in 1612 and what did he introduce?
Thomas Howard, Earl of Sussex. He collected ‘benevolence,’ in 1614 and £100,000 from the Dutch to remove the English garrisons from the United Provinces, struggling to increase revenue. He sold honours such as baronets and peerage for £1095 and £10,000 respectively. He was corrupt, partaking in borrowing from royal finances, and he built himself Audley End.
In 1618, Lionel Cransfield replaced Sussex as treasury commissioner. What did he do?
Re-issued Cecil’s Book of Rates to increase revenue from tariffs.
He cut down pensions and forced up the rent paid by customs farmers.
1619 - He demanded James stop all pensions and reduce waste in the household.
He managed to balance expenditure and revenue by 1620,
Why were wardships disliked?
They were abused by the head of state of the Court of Wards, who sold them to gain large sums of cash, and the speculation would further abuse the property, leaving the wards to pay cash sums for devastated property.
What proportion of James’ income did customs’ duties make in 1580s, and how about by 1611?
1580s- 1/3
1611 - 1/2
How much did subsidies make in 1559, and what did this fall to by 1621? Accounting for inflation, what proportion did this make?
1559 - £137000
1621 - £72,000
Inflation made this 1/5 of Elizabeth’s.
What did Sir Walter Raleigh claim about subsidies?
Those with properties of £30-40 in the Queen’s subsidy book were worth hundreds more.
