James I and Finance Flashcards
1610-1625
What was the context to finances before James I’s reign?
Elizabeth left debts of £350,000 - not a concern because it was crown income and £300k was to come in anyway
£100k was owed to landowners - didn’t expect to repaid
Large sums were lent to Henry VI and Dutch wanted it back
How was James going to spend more anyway than Elizabeth?
Because he had a family to maintain
What did Elizabeth fail to do?
Failed to update the Book of Rates and assessments with inflation
Received less than intended because not in line with inflation
Finances in disarray because EI had policies to sell crown lands worth £800k
What was the problem with the subsidies?
Parliament tax was only meant for emergencies eg war
How much was the decline in revenue collection?
£137,500 to £72,500
System was rubbish
How would the commissions value things? Give examples.
Would undervalue them eg DofB house £400 instead of £400k
How was James an extravagant man?
He was lavish to his Scottish friends - was done to keep friendships due to his trouble growing up
What was Ante Supper 1621?
James spent £3k then having a supper that was just for show which was a massive waste of moneyyyyyy
How much money did James spend on his daughters wedding and son’s funeral?
£185k total
What did he do with customs duties?
Put tariffs on imports and exports which was always conferred with Parliament with each reign
How was the King’s set wage collected?
Collected diligently by syndicates
What were impositions?
Tax to regulate trade and granted via royal prerogative
What was the John Bates Case 1606? What was the result?
He was sent to court for refusing to pay the new impositions by the fact that James upped the Book of Rates
He believed that it was not sanctioned
Judge took James’ side and in 1608, 1000 luxury items was added to the impositions list
What did Cecil (1608-1612) try and do in 1608 in terms of finances? How did he do this?
Tried to organise royal spending as the first Lord Treasurer
Targeted debt via recusants - £9k a day which was a long term benefit
Managed land better by setting up the Book of Bounty (1608) curbing spending
Everything went through Cecil first - unabsolutist
Why was the government critical of this approach?
They were reluctant because of prev. govt errors.
What was the verdict of James I’s finance?
He overestimated wealth and was overgenerous to his friends and himself - Ante Supper 1621 etc
Gave money to Scottish friends with the money from the subsidies - disliked massively.
Who was the 2nd LT? What happened with him?
Tomas Howard (1614-1618) - charged with embezzlement. He was useless and couldn’t do anything.
What were the problems during 2LT’s time?
James rewarding loyal followers became a massive problem due to inability to reform
Offices were unpaid and therefore ministers were paid rewards for pensions etc
Little distinction between reward and word - allowed bribes
Monarchy couldn’t use resources and managed effectively
Kings rewarded patronage leading to bribery
What was the Great Contract of 1610?
Cecil needed money to reduce the debt and therefore asked James to call Parliament
Tried to sanction a 1st payment with convincing them with wardships and ending purveyance as a compromise.
Diverted attention from extravagance of James
Court of Wards was to be abolished
He wanted the funeral of EI to cost a lot to show the other countries how secure the country was
Why was Parliament not convinced?
They were conservative and outdated
Pointed to the favourability to the Scots and that MPs only gave extra during war - they were not in war due to Treaty of London 1605
How did Cecil try to emotionally appeal to them?
Tried to have a ceremony of one of the heirs to try and boost morale etc.
He used the funeral to pull strings honouring the legacy
Took advantage of the assassination of Henry VI of France to show instability of Europe
What did James promise during the Great Contract 1610?
To not initiate anything without consent of Parliament
Why were the MPs unhappy with about the John Bates Case in 1608?
It did not set a precedent to other impositions at the time.
What did the Commons agree to eventually?
Gave £200k in principle but would not compensate for CoW until the money was received.
What did Cecil try and do with impositions to get support? How did he become desperate?
Removed 900 impositions and became desperate trying to do anything to get them to agree which is not good because that hands control over easily.
How did James compromise over the Great Contract?
Dismissed Parliament and stopped the contract occurring because he heard a rumour over a petition to send his Scottish friends home (suspected lovers James Hay etc)
Why were both the King and Parliament at fault?
It was managed poorly and Parliament were very petty for making a petition and delaying the process.
It was very hard to practically negotiate
There was a lack of trust between the two bodies and that will never work out
Lack of trust because Parliament believed that James would never recall Parliament if he received the money.
He disapproved of his court and because there was no foreign threat
Abolishing purveyance was only beneficial to the South
Ending wardships only benefited the landowners
Courtiers were against the Contract
Moderates said that the 200k was to be reduced
What were the Financial solutions that Cecil and James tried to employ?
Tried to sell titles - ‘Baronet’ - £1095 at the start - 1611
£90885 was raised but devalued a lot past 1614 - £200 by 1622
Money raised maintained army in Eiré
Cecil died in 1612 - last attempt
James sold peerages and Earl and it increased to 65 by 1628
Revenue up and down on Court of Wards (Courtiers) books - commissions as middlemen
Resentment due to devaluing of the Earl title
What did Tomas Howard, 2LT ask as a way to make money?
Asked for an outdated practice, a “benevolence” payment which was a non-parliamentary tax and very old fashioned
Pros and cons of the benevolence subsidy?
Pro - Gained £65k but lost the dressing room because it was old fashioned and very desperate
What was the Cockayne Scheme in 1614?
James changed from a reputable firm to a new firm in cloth making
They persuaded him to join this to gain an extra £40k/year dying cloth
The cloth was not produced well and exports ceased - Dutch didn’t want it
Weavers became u/e - riots in West Country
Forced to end in 1617 and return - poor financial judgment
Had to sell land in Netherlands (Flushing and Brill) for < value than expected
Granted monopolies as a way to gain back
Very unpopular in 1621 because he revoked 20 beforehand
Who was the 3rd LT and what did he do?
Lionel Cranfield, 3rd LT in 1621 - Wanted to increase revenue and do austerity
Got a lot of money from CoW/Impositions and Farmers
Stopped military spending - Navy, Royal Wardrobe and households with 100k value
Tried to stop James spending
How did James broke promises to Cranfield?
Gave £10k to his friend Duke of Buckingham for a new house and £10k for his new child
How did Cranfield mess up all of his progress?
Foreign policy spending increased and the progress was ruined
He blundered making enemies with Buckingham who accused him of corruption - imprisoned in the Tower of London
What was Finance like in the later years? - Trade 1620
A trade depression occurred which made cloth exports down and there was widespread u/e
U/e disrupted foreign markets and there was a harvest failure
What were the monopoly issues during the later years?
James granted more monopolies which led to prices increased and this was not liked because there was an economic downturn occurring simultaneously.
Sir Mompesson was impeached due to that
James had to cancel some monopolies and lost revenue - VERY NEGATIVE.
What were the money issues during the later years?
Finances issues not resolved - Parliament not giving
Needed £1m to go to war but only got £140k by Parliament
Money had to be used on neighbours
This devalued King.
What was the Parliament Privilege Issues during the later years?
Increased issues with DoB
Cranfield and Coke used impeachment to ruin Sir Bacon due to the divisions occurring in the Privy Council
MPs were ready to recover the Palatinate and Anti-Spanish fleet
MPs were criticised for agreeing to more taxes - 1 subsidy given
James told MPs to not interfere with state matters - evidence for absolutism
MPs claimed privileges were ancient
1/3 signed FAS1604
James rejected and dissolved Parliament.
What were the recusant issues during the later years?
James pressed them to be persecuted more vigorously
James did not want to disrupt negotiations with Spain which would be critical of this because of them being Catholic
Can’t be seen as pressing
What were the Privilege Issues in the later years?
James said before death that FP was the King’s prerogative
Only he could decide - DRK
What was the overall verdict of Financial Management?
Not good with financial management.
Too generous with spending
Lack of creative ideas post-Cecil long-term
Left son with £1m debt
Lost money through Cockayne Scheme 1614, Monopolies and Trade due to economic depression.
For - Finance James’ reign - Main points
He raised the book of rates which was not done in the previous reign of Elizabeth
Cecil his LT was able to collect a long term revenue via recusants - £9k in a day
Great Contract 1610 - Parliament were being very petty for sending a petition to send his friends back to Scotland and being too conservative and outdated to pay him the given sum.
James being under supervision shows that they were terrified of not being in control.
People were not paying their recusants fines and he could not enforce the law because he was negotiating deals with Spain who was a Catholic country
Against - James Finance Reign - MP
He was given a failed Book of Rates update - he lost a lot of money that he did not have
Commissions undervalued people’s estates and so he was unable to benefit from that eg DofB estate worth £400
He was not trusted by Cecil and eventually had to have everything go through him
He gave thousands to his Scottish friends which the English MPs did not like at all.
Great Contract 1610 - Cecil had to resort to emotional appeal like having a heir celebration and taking advantage of Henry VI death to talk about instability in the monarchies. Additionally, using it as a tactic to divert the attention of his extravagance fell through.
1614 Cockayne Scheme - Blundered a lot of money changing sides to a new firm which did not produce good enough cloth to get £40k/year as he was promised
Tomas Howard - 2nd LT was awful at trying to be creative in getting revenue - asking for benevolence which was very old-fashioned and desperate embarrassed James in the ruling class - shows that he cannot appoint competent people - or those types of people do not have the experience in such a mess that was added to his mistakes.
