Taxes

The parentage of Cromwell's principal source of public revenue and only general direct tax belongs to two highlycriticized taxes of the early Stuart period, namely ship-money and the forced loan. ¹ Partly because the old direct taxes, the subsidy and the tenth-and-fifteenth, had ceased to yield more than a small stereotyped amount, and partly on account of constitutional difficulties, the advisers of Charles I had decided upon the expedient of demanding a large sum of money (the equivalent of three of the old subsidies) for building ships, and had divided it up among all the towns and counties of the land. It was generally admitted that this ship-money assessment of 1636 was extremely fair, ‘to the end’, it was said, ‘that the equality might take off the illegality’, and in the course of financial debates in the Commons under the Protectorate it was often urged, despite reprimands from Government officials, that no assessment could be found so equal as that of ship-money. ² The use of forced loans stretches far back into the history of the English kings, and, when the civil war came, both sides used this method to obtain money when it was found that voluntary contributions would not suffice. In November, 1642, Parliament appointed a committee, which included John Pym, to arrange such a loan from the City of London, real property contributing 5 per cent. and personal 20 per cent. of their assessed value, those assessed under £100 being exempt; the lenders were promised 8 per cent. interest on the guarantee of the public faith. ³ But soon after this Committee for the Advance of Money had been established, an ordinance ‘for the speedy raising of money for the maintenance of the army raised by Parliament’ was promulgated, which imposed a direct weekly tax for a period of three months. ¹ As with ship-money the sum aimed at was first decided upon and then divided up proportionately among the towns and counties over which the parliamentary forces exercised control. London was heavily assessed at £10,000, but was promised a 60 per cent. repayment on the public faith and that the rate should not be regarded as a precedent. A second weekly assessment was levied in August from which London was omitted, and the first monthly assessment, which demanded the sum of £21,000, was introduced for the payment of Fairfax's army on February 21, 1645, and henceforward the monthly assessment became a regular tax used by the interregnum governments. ²