James' Finance Flashcards
James’ Extravagant Expenditure
Court Spending: doubled from 1603 to 1625.
1606: James gave £44,000 of three subsidies granted to pay his debts to 3 of his Scottish friends.
1611: gave away £90,700 with roughly £70,000 going to eleven Scotsman
Ante-suppers: wasted money and food, spent £33,000 for one in 1621.
Treaty of London
1604: End to Anglo-Spanish wars which decreased crown expenditure
Impositions Case
1606: John Bates refused to pay royal import tax on currants therefore he tested royal prerogative
Exchequer court declared crown has ‘absolute prerogative’ on imports and did not need parliaments permission. Crown extended impositions and increased rates
Robert Cecil
1608-1609: James promised to stop giving land and pensions without Cecils approval
James kept neither of the promises
Book of Bounty
1608: Survey of crown lands to review and revise leasing agreements to maximise income.
But James kept giving away land which limited the use of this.
Cecil had to sell crown lands.
Book of Rates
1608: Cecil revised the book of customs duties so they now took into account inflation over the last 50 years.
Crown gained £70,000.
Threatened parliaments power over tax and they worried the king would become self sufficient
The Great Contract
1610: Cecil negotiated a contract with Parliament for financial reform.
Explained debt and asked for £600,000 subsidy.
Parliament agreed to give £200,000 per year if James gave up some feudal rights like wardship, and his right to pass impositions without Parliamentary permission (but wanted compensation for this).
Negotiations fell through and was not passed.
Titles
James sold a huge number of knighthoods which devalued the title.
1611: Made a new title of Baronet which he sold for £1,095, this also devalued (only short term solution) bringing in £90, 885 by March 1614 and was only worth £220 by 1622.
1615: James sold earldoms for £10,000 which devalued them and dropped in price, increased from 27 earls to 65 between 1615 and 1628
The Cockayne Project
1614: William Cockayne attempted to reorganise the cloth trade. James granted him a monopoly, which caused an increase in prices of cloth therefore it failed as the Dutch refused to buy it.
Monopolies
1621: James granted over 100 monopolies, MPs were unhappy about this, especially in the case of Giles Mompesson, a relative of Buckingham, who abused his monopoly over inn licenscing.
Led to an issue between Francis Bacon and Coke.
1624: Staute of Monopolies passed by Parliament of 1624, limiting King’s right to grant monopolies to individuals which limited his prerogative power.
Subsidy Act
1624: Parliament granted the King a £300,000 subsidy for warfare for areas of foreign policy agreed upon by Parliament.
Attempt to limit King’s spending and monitor him
Lionel Cranfield
1625: Cranfield investigated into the total household, navy, etc. to reduce spending.
No significant reform occurred and only made some savings.
Royal Debt
1603: £100,000
1610: £280,000 with current annual expenditure at £511,000
1614: £680,000
1620: £900,000
1625: £1milllion
