CHAPTER VI. 



TAXATION AND FINANCE. 



THE revenue of the Crown for the first half of the period 

 before us was derived, as it had been of old, from the 

 hereditary estate of the sovereign, from feudal dues, from 

 official fees, from customs on exports and imports, from fines 

 and forfeitures, and from the post office. On this estate were 

 maintained the household, the executive, and such personal 

 guards as the king might keep in attendance on him during 

 time of peace. Hence grants to court favourites were looked 

 on with great suspicion, for to lessen the king's estate was to 

 impoverish his ordinary resources, with the result in the end 

 of his coming on the public at large for supplies. It is true 

 indeed that for a long time rents did not rise with prices, 

 and that consequently the Crown was greatly impoverished by 

 natural causes after the issue of the base money and the 

 restoration of the coinage. 



Elizabeth was very poor. But she was exceedingly thrifty, 

 and even stinted unwisely. During that part of her reign 

 which extends from her accession to 1582-3 she seldom asked 

 her subjects for extraordinary supplies. But the outbreak 

 of hostilities with Spain and the Irish insurrection made it 

 necessary that she should be more frequent in her claims on 

 Parliament, and that she should seek new sources of revenue 

 in grants of privilege to chartered companies of trade. 



The parliamentary grants were from the clergy and the 

 laity, and were spoken of as subsidies in the case of the clergy, 





