ABSTRACT

The Civil War involved the final breakdown of a financial system which had ruled in England for about three centuries. During these centuries, both revenue and expenditure were in theory divided into three separate sections, and the total revenue was not derived from a system of taxes. The first section comprised the proprietary revenue from Crown lands and feudal rights, which constituted a varying but large proportion of the total revenue and was supposed to provide for the ordinary internal administrative expenditure of the State. The second section comprised the revenue from Customs duties, which was supposed to provide for the 'keeping of the sea' for the protection of merchants and the defence of the realm—that is, for expenditure on the Navy. The third section comprised the revenue from direct taxes, in the full modern sense of the word, which were levied usually on a grant by Parliament for special national purposes such as war.