finances

• ante-supper


  two feasts would be prepared, one for eating and one purely for display and then thrown away

  • cost around £3300 in 1621
• 1610 – the great contract


  Robert Cecil suggests that parliament grant the king an annual income.

  abolish wardship, purveyance impositions and feudal tenures in return for an annual £200,000 and an initial £600,000 to clear debt
• why did the great contract fail?


  MPs did not feel that they should fund James' extravagance

  the bill impeded James' freedom of action

  • parliament was shut down in retaliation
• what was the Crown's debt by 1608?


  £600,000

  mostly due to James' lavish spending and lifestyle
• 1608 – the book of bounty


  issued by Cecil to strengthen royal finance

  • put a cap on what James could gift
• the new book of rates – 1608


  list of different taxes that hadn't been updated since 1558

  • impositions became £70,000 a year which was equal to a parliamentary subsidy
• why did the new book of rates cause a political issue?

  the impositions became equal to a parliamentary subsidy which meant that questions were raised if the crown actually needed parliament
• 1606 – parliament grant James 3 subsidies to help with debt. what does he do with them?


  he gives £44,000 of the money to his friends in scotland
• 1614 – the Cockayne project (monopolies)


  William Cockayne granted the monopoly on the production and sale of finished cloth BUT his scheme to reorganise the cloth trade fail
• Why did Cockayne's scheme fail?

  the Dutch refused to purchase English cloth which caused a slump in the cloth trade
• 1624 – statute of monopolies


  limited the crown's right to grant monopolies to individuals
• 1624 – subsidy act


  granted the crown of £300,000 to the crown for warfare on the agreement that it would only be used for specific areas and have supervision