REVENUE. 



o. The custody of the lay-revenues, 

 lands, and tenements of bishoprics, dur- 

 ing their vacancy ; and, before the disso- 

 lution of abbeys, the custody of the tem- 

 poralities of such as were of royal foun- 

 dation. Many of the kings were induced 

 to keep the sees a long time vacant, in 

 order to enjoy their temporalities. 



4. First-fruits and tenths of all spiritual 

 preferments. The former was the whole 

 of the first year's produce of the prefer- 

 ment, according 1 to a valuation made in 

 38 Henry III. and afterwards increased in 

 20 Edward II. The tenths were the 

 tenth part of the whole annual profit of 

 each living, by the same valuation. These 

 revenues were paid to the Pope, till an- 

 nexed to the crown by 26 Henry VIII. c. 

 3. when a new valuation was made, by 

 which the clergy are at present rated, 

 and which forms what is commonly called 

 the King's Books. These revenues are 

 now vested in trustees for ever, as a fund 

 for the augmentation of poor livings, and 

 form what is usually called Queen Anne's 

 Bounty. , 



5. Purveyance and pre-emption, or a 

 right of buying 1 up provisions and other 

 necessaries, for the use of the royal house- 

 hold, at an appraised valuation, in prefer- 

 ence to all other persons,, and even with- 

 out the consent of the owner ; also of for- 

 cibly impressing carriages and horses for 

 the King's use/ at a settled price. The 

 purveyors greatly abused their authority, 

 and were of little advantage to the crown ; 

 Charles II. therefore, at his restoration, 

 agreed to resign this prerogative, with 

 the military tenures ; and the Parliament, 

 in lieu thereof, settled on him and his suc- 

 cessors for ever, a tax on beer and ale, 

 afterwards commonly called the heredi- 

 tary excise. 



6. Fines and forfeitures of various de- 

 scriptions ; also fees to the crown, in a 

 variety of legal matters. 



7. The right to all shipwrecks ; to trea- 

 sure-trove ; to royal fish, that is, whales 

 and sturgeons, when thrown ashore, or 

 caught near the coast ; to all mines of sil- 

 ver or gold ; to waifs, or goods stolen and 

 thrown away by the thief in his flight ; 

 and estrays, or animals found wandering, 

 and the owner unknown; and to deo- 

 dands, and forfeitures of lands and goods 

 for offences. These rights, producing lit- 

 tle profit, have since been mostly grant- 

 ed away to the lords of manors and other 

 liberties. 



8. Escheats of lands, upon the defect 

 of heirs to succeed to the inheritance, in. 

 which case they reverted to the King. 



9. The custody of idiots and lunatics* 

 the profits of whose lands were received 

 by the King, an allowance being made to 

 them for necessaries. 



From these sources, the produce of the 

 remaining branches of which is now very 

 insignificant, the Kings of England deriv- 

 ed the whole of their ordinary revenue, 

 till commerce raised the produce of the 

 customs into importance, and the Parlia- 

 ment ventured to grant the principal part 

 of their produce to the King, for life. Up- 

 on extraordinary occasions, Henry II. and 

 some of his successors, had recourse 

 chiefly to scutnges, which were a com- 

 position by those who held knight's fees, 

 in lieu of the military service to which 

 they were bound, and seem to have been 

 at first mere arbitrary compositions, as 

 the King and the persons liable could 

 agree : hydage, and talliage, were taxes 

 of the same nature, upon other lands, and 

 upon cities and boroughs. Tenths and 

 fifteenths were originally the real tenth 

 or fifteenth of all the moveablcs belong- 

 ing to the subject ; the amount was un- 

 certain, being levied by new assessments 

 on every fresh grant, till the 8 Edward III. 

 when a new assessment was made and 

 recorded in the Exchequer, which was 

 the real value at that period of every city, 

 borough, and town in the kingdom, and 

 by this the fifteenths were afterwards le- 

 vied, according to the specific sums 

 therein stated, which were usually raised 

 in the different places by a common rate 

 on all the inhabitants. Subsidies were a 

 grant introduced about the time of Rich- 

 ard II. and Henry IV. ; they were a tax 

 not immediately imposed upon property, 

 but upon persons in respect to their re- 

 puted estates, after the nominal rate of 

 four shillings in the pound for lands, and 

 two shillings and eight pence for goods ; 

 aliens paid in a double proportion. This 

 assessment was made according to an an- 

 cient valuation, which was so low, that 

 one subsidy, according to Sir Edward 

 Coke, did not amount to more than 

 70,000/. It was the rule never to grant 

 more than one subsidy and two-fifteenths 

 at a time ; but this rule was broken 

 through on the Spanish invasion in 1588, 

 when the Parliament gave two subsidies 

 and four- fifteenths. This mode of taxa- 

 tion fell into disuse during the civil wars 

 in the reign of Charles I. when the Par- 

 liament introduced weekly and monthly 

 assessments, at a fixed sum upon each 

 county, which was levied by a pound rate, 

 both upon lands and personal estates. 

 The 'commonwealth afterward introduced 



