Stuarts - Chapter 3: Finances of crown & attempts at reform

Question 1

How did james raise money with customs revenue?

Answer 1

Tonnage and poundage - by 1621 this raised 3x what crown lands did. In 1604 this duty was farmed out and customs farmers could collect customs in return of annual rent which have the King an income and this patronage gave the King a group of supporters who could provide loans.

Question 2

What was Bate’s Case?

Answer 2

In 1606 John Bate’s, a merchant, refused to pay duty on currants and was taken to court. Bate’s claimed it was not sanctioned so the monarch defended him. By 1608 impositions were introduced on 1400 items bringing £70,000 to the exchequer. —– He lost the case and James was allowed to impose taxation on individual goods.

Question 3

What was purveyance?

Answer 3

the right of the sovereign to buy provisions and use horses and vehicles for a fixed price lower than the market value. This was abused by officials who bought things in excess and sold them. This only affected a small number who travelled. Parliament was anxious to end purveyance. £40,000 per annum. (James saw purveyance as his royal prerogative)

Question 4

What were wardships?

Answer 4

Wardship applied to those landowners who held their estates on a feudal tenure from the Crown. In theory anyone with a wardship was bound to provide military service to the Crown when it was required. Courtiers often abused wardships to their benefit, ruining families, so parliament tried to end this. £65,000 per annum.

Question 5

What was the issue with extravagance?

Answer 5

James increased annual spending from £300,000 in Elizabeth’s reign to £522,000. This was conspicuous consumption. He often spent money on hated scots such as Lord Hay who held a buffet for French ambassadors which occupied 30 cooks for 12 days and cost £2200. James also paid his debts.

Question 6

What was Shirley’s Case, 1604?

Answer 6

Shirley was arrested as an MP for not paying debt so Parliament sent the Governor of the Fleet debtor’s prison to the Tower of London until Shirley was released, showing that James could not freely arrest MPs, excluding for severe crimes such as felonies and treason.

Question 7

What were James’ major sources of royal revenue?

Answer 7

Land and duties from customs… (And it was in James’s good fortune that the latter increased dramatically after the judges ruled in Bate’s case (1606) that the king could make impositions on imported commodities without the consent of Parliament. )

Question 8

Impact of the Bate’s case…

Answer 8

The king could make impositions on imported commodities without the consent of Parliament.

Question 9

James’s minister Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury…

Answer 9

Under the direction of Cecil, impositions were levied on an expanded list of goods, and a revised book of rates was issued in 1608 that increased the level of duties. By these measures customs revenues grew by £70,000 per year.

Question 10

What had the royal debt accumulated to in 1606?

What were the financial minister’s response?

Answer 10

£600,000
They had turned their attention to prerogative income from wardships, purveyance, and the discovery of concealed lands (i.e., crown lands on which rents and dues were not being paid). The revival and rationalisation of these ancient rights created an outcry

Question 11

1604 - Cecil (Salisbury)

Answer 11

As early as 1604 Salisbury was examining proposals to commute these fiscal rights into an annual sum to be raised by a land tax.

Question 12

What was the Great Contract?

Answer 12

The Great Contract was a plan submitted to James I and Parliament in 1610 by Robert Cecil. It was an attempt to increase Crown income and ultimately rid it of debt. … The House of Commons withdrew because they were wary of providing an income that might give the King financial independence — In return for an annual grant of £200,000, the Crown should give up its feudal rights of Wardship and Purveyance, as well as the power of creating new impositions. (Rejected by both James and political nation).

Question 13

Impact of the failure of the great contract…

Answer 13

The failure of the Great Contract drove Salisbury to squeeze even more revenue out of the king’s feudal rights, including the sale of titles. (This policy violated the spirit of principles about property and personal liberty held by the governing classes and, along with impositions, was identified as a grievance during James’s first Parliaments).

Question 14

What was the Size of the grant James received from Parliament in 1601?

Answer 14

£300,000

Question 15

What large expense did James have to deal with initially?

Answer 15

The costs of Elizabeth’s Funeral.

Question 16

List the 4 main reasons James had financial issues:

Answer 16

1) Debt.
2) Inflation.
3) Extravagance.
4) Declining Value of the Subsidy.

Question 17

When did Inflation rise suddenly?

Answer 17

Inflation rose considerably under the Tudors in the 1500’s.

Question 18

What was the Subsidy?

Answer 18

A tax controlled by Parliament which was designed for emergencies such as war. Parliament had to authorise the collection of the Subsidy.

Question 19

Why was the Subsidy declining in value?

Answer 19

1) Inflation.
2) The amount of tax people had to pay was valued by their neighbours, as such the value of property and possessions were often undervalued. (£137,000 under Elizabeth & £72,500 under James).

Question 20

Why was James extravagant?

Answer 20

Because he had a very harsh upbringing and needed to retain friends and people around him by giving them large gifts and titles.

Question 21

What was an anti-feast?

Answer 21

When James would organise a feast with expensive food and then throw it out and replace it with new food, just to show the fact he was rich.

Question 22

How much did James spend on his daughters wedding and Sons funeral?

Answer 22

£116,000

Question 23

What was a Customs Farm?

Answer 23

A contract was awarded to a company to collect the custom duties on behalf of the crown. The company would pay the King an annual income and they got to keep any profits.

Question 24

Why were customs farms good for James?

Answer 24

1) Removed logistical issue of collecting tax.
2) Increased his income by £12,000 compared to Elizabeth.

3) Provided James with a regular income so he could
better manage his finances.

Question 25

Why were customs farms bad for James?

Answer 25

1) As Trade Increased the amount of profits the custom farmers received increased, but the fixed income James received, remained fixed. This meant the contract had to be renegotiated.
2) Money was lost to the company which the crown could have received.

Question 26

When was the new book of rates issued?

Answer 26

1604

Question 27

What was contained in the new book of rates?

Answer 27

The prices of commodities and how much they could be taxed.

Question 28

What were the positives about the New book of rates?

Answer 28

1) Raised £70,000 a year.

2) Allowed value of commodities to be updated for new trading conditions.

Question 29

Why were Merchants upset about the New Book of Rates?

Answer 29

Because the old book had existed since 1558, so the new system was more expensive and took time to get used to.

Question 30

Who was John Bates?

When was the Bates case

Answer 30

A merchant for the Levant Company.

1606

Question 31

Why was Parliament angry with the bates case?

Answer 31

1) Gave James more power which made him less dependant on Parliament.
2) Felt it was an abuse of James’ power.

Question 32

What was a recusant?

Answer 32

Those who refused to attend services of the Church of England and thereby committed a statutory offence. (remained loyal to the pope and the Roman Catholic Church ).

Question 33

Why were Recusant fines good for James?

Answer 33

The recusant was to be fined £60 or to forfeit two-thirds of his land if he did not receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper at least once a year in his Church of England parish church. The Act also made it high treason to obey the authority of Rome rather than the king. (fined £20 a months - if they were unable to pay they would lose a hand).

Question 34

What did Chief Minister Robert Cecil initially do about James’ debt?

Answer 34

Farming out custom dues and impositions
They were successful in terms of the amount they raised for James, although they did not do a great deal to decrease the most pressing of James’s needs – reducing his overall royal debt.

Question 35

Robert Cecil… Crown lands.

Answer 35

Robert Cecil had to sell off Crown lands to reduce debt – which was an issue as he knew that once land was sold, it was lost to the Crown and future revenue collection.

Question 36

Crown land Between 1603 and 1609…

Answer 36

Crown land and property to the value of £400,000 had been sold. This so concerned Cecil, that he persuaded the king to entail the most valuable of Crown land and hand over its administration to the Privy Council.

Question 37

Crown lands 1610…

Answer 37

With a more concerted efforts in the collection of outstanding rent and debt, a total of £700,000 had been collected which should have had a significant impact on royal debt

Question 38

What was the crown’s debt by 1610?

Answer 38

for all the work done by Cecil, the Crown was still in debt to the tune of £160,000 by 1610. Cecil also had to cope with an extra £80,000 added to the total in 1610 as a result of James’s extravagant spending.

Question 39

What and when was the book of bounty?

Answer 39

1608 – The Book of Bounty issued. It was a device to reduce royal expenditure. This should be viewed alongside Robert Cecil’s revision to the rate of taxation. He’s revised the rates once in 1604 and did so again in 1608. The revisions of 1608 fetched an additional £70,000 into the royal coffers.

Question 40

What were the problems with the great contract?

when…

Answer 40

1610 – Parliament refuse to proceed with the Great Contract which James has proposed. If they had agreed it would have resulted in a tax being levied to clear James’ debts. Parliament offered James £200,000 per year. James demanded another £200,000. In addition to the financial considerations there was a concern that James might not call Parliament again if he got all the money he wanted in one hit. James was unwilling to sell off any of his prerogative rights so came no where close to meeting Parliament half-way.