Taxation under the early Tudors: 1485 - 1547

Cover -- Contents -- List of Tables and Figures -- Preface -- List of Abbreviations -- 1 Introduction -- Scope of the Study -- The General Nature and Incidence of the Taxes -- Parliamentary Taxation and National Finance -- Parliamentary Taxation and the Redress of Grievances -- 2 Parliament -- Taxation and the Summons of Parliament -- The Case for Taxation: the Preambles -- Parliamentary Opposition -- The Evolution of a Money Bill -- Drafts and amendments -- Commons and Lords -- Indenture and statute: assent -- 3 The Fifteenth and Tenth -- The Historical Background -- The Levying of the Tax -- The appointment of the collectors -- The charges on the vills -- The delegation of powers within the vill -- Local assessment -- Local collection -- The collectors and the problems of collection -- Opposition to distress: rescues -- Opposition to distress: actions at law -- Collective responsibility: unhelpful colleagues -- The costs of collection -- The time available for collection -- Unpopularity of office: limitations and exemptions -- Exemptions from Liability to the Fifteenth and Tenth -- Exemption by status -- Exemption by custom -- Exemption by statute -- Exemption by petition to the Barons of the Exchequer -- Exemption by prerogative grant -- Summary -- 4 The Evolution of the Directly Assessed Subsidy -- The Fifteenth-Century Background -- The Poll Tax on Aliens of 1488 -- The Subsidy of 1489: Failure -- The Compromise Forms of 1497 and 1504 -- The Attainment of the Final Form of the Directly Assessed Subsidy -- The subsidy of 1513 -- The subsidies of 1514, 1515 and 1516 -- The subsidy act of 1523 and after -- 5 The Directly Assessed Subsidies 1513-47 -- The General Administration of the Subsidies -- Special commissions -- Exemption and division -- Ministerial control over the commissioners -- Assessment -- What was assessed? -- Minimum qualifications -- Rates of payment -- Increased rates of payment -- Exemptions from liability to the subsidies -- Assessment rules -- The procedure of assessment -- The timing of the assessments -- Collection of the Money -- Local collection: the petty collectors -- The high collectors -- The time allowed for collection -- Legal tender -- Transferred liability to payment -- Difficulties arising during collection -- Certification -- The Time Allowed for Levy of the Subsidies -- Anticipations -- The Efficiency of the Administration of the Subsidies -- Efficiency in the certification of assessments -- The accuracy of the assessments -- 6 The Procedure and the Records of the Exchequer -- The Exchequer of Receipt -- Payment by assignment -- Exchequer terms and payment dates -- The Exchequer of Account -- The summons to account -- The death of a collector -- Appearance at the Exchequer: attornies -- The procedure of account -- Debts upon accounts -- Enrolment of debts on the Pipe Rolls -- 7 The Yields of the Taxes -- 8 The Efficiency of the Collection of the Taxes -- Speed of Payment -- Speed of Account at the Exchequer -- Defaults by the Collectors -- The Efficacy of the Forms of Process out of the Exchequer -- Popular Opposition to Parliamentary Taxation -- 9 Taxation and the Political Limits of the Tudor State -- T$13212.

If taxation is the mobilization of economic resources for political ends, it is evident that any study of taxation must probe well beyond the administrative technicalities of its subject. Social, economic, political and administrative history are all part of the investigation. The early Tudor period is especially significant in the history of taxation. This new study examines the taxes granted by parliament to the crown between 1485 and 1547. Under Henry VIII, taxation based on the direct assessment of each individual was revived, having been abandoned as unworkable in the fourteenth century. In the long run, the Tudor experiment failed: direct assessment was abandoned again after decades of complaint about evasion and under-assessment in the mid-seventeenth century, and was not restored until the end of the eighteenth century. But examination of the experiment, and of the timing and causes of its failure, throws light on the changing political limits of the Tudor state. Schofield's research marks an important advance in our understanding not only of the fiscal resources available to the English crown but also of the broader political culture of early Tudor England