REVENUE. 
i»een mostly granted away to the lords of 
ihauoi's 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 derived 
the whole of their ordinary revenue, till 
commerce raised' the produce of the cus- 
toms into importance, and the Parliament 
ventured to grant the principal part of 
their produce to the King, for life. Upon 
extraordinary occasions, Henry II. and 
sonie of his successors, had recourse chiefly 
to scutages, which were a composition 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 arbi- 
trary 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 bo- 
roughs. Tenths and fifteenths were origi- 
nally the real tenth or fifteenth of all the 
moveables belonging to the subject ; the 
amount was uncertain, being levied by new 
assessments on every fresh grant, till the 
8 Edwar d III. when a new assessnrent was 
made and recorded in the Exchequer, 
which was the real value at that period of 
every city, borough, and town in the king- 
dom, and by this the fifteenths were after- 
wards levied, according to the specific sums 
therein stated, which were usually raised in 
the different places by a common rate oh 
all the inhabitants. Subsidies were a grant 
introduced about the time of Richard if. 
and Henry IV. ; they were a' tax not im- 
mediately imposed upon property, but 
upon persons in respect to their reputed 
estates, after the nominal rate of four shil- 
lings in the pound for lands, and two shil- 
lings and eightpence for goods ; aliens paid 
in a double proportiorr. This assessment 
was made according to an ancient valua- 
tion, which was so low, that one subsidy, 
according to Sir Edward Coke, did not 
amount to more than 70,0001. 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 inva- 
sion in 1588, when the Parliament gave 
two subsidies and four-fifteenths. This 
mode of taxation fell into disuse during the 
civil wars in the reign of Charles I. when 
the Parliament 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 
excise duties, and derived some profit from 
the establishment of the post-office, both of 
which have been since improved into very 
productive sources of revenue. 
At the period of the revolution, most of 
the ancient branches of the King’s revenue 
had either been fonnally relinquished, or 
had greatly declined in their produce, and 
the parliamentary grants had for some years, 
past consisted almost entirely of custom 
and excise-duties, with occasional poll- 
taxes and hearth-money. The total amount 
of the several branches of which the public 
revenue then consisted, will appear by the 
following statement, which was formed 
upon tlie average produce of four years. 
Amount of the Public Revenue in 1688. 
£. s. d. 
Subsidy of tonnage and poundage 577,h07 .. 12 .. lo^ 
Hereditary and temporary excise 610,486 .. 10 .. 9 
Hearth-money, about ....200,000.. 0 .. 0 
Post Office, about.. 55,000 .. 0 .. 0 
Duties on wines and vinegar.... 172,900 .. 11 .. 8i 
Duties on tobacco and sugar 148,861 .. 8 ,. 0 
Duties on French linens, brandies, &c 93,710 .. 8 .. 1 
Wine licences, seizures, &c 56,969 .. 4 .. 4 
Total .£1,915.435 .. 15 .. 9 
I " 
This was the whole of the public revenue, appropriated for defraying the expenses of 
except the small duties of ten shillings per coinage ; and a duty of eighteen-pence per 
ton on wine, &c. first granted in 1666, and ciuildron on coals, appropriated foi com- 
