Ship money
Ship moneywas ataxofmedievalorigin levied intermittently in theKingdom of Englanduntil the middle of the 17th century. Assessed typically on the inhabitants of coastal areas of England, it was one of several taxes that Englishmonarchscould levy byprerogativewithout the approval ofParliament.The attempt ofKing Charles Ifrom 1634 onwards to levy ship money during peacetime and extend it to the inland counties of England without parliamentary approval provoked fierce resistance, and was one of the grievances of the English propertied class in the lead-up to theEnglish Civil War.
Traditional practice[edit]
ThePlantagenetkings of England had exercised the right of requiring the maritime towns and counties to furnish ships in time of war, and this duty was sometimes commuted for a money payment.[1]
Although several statutes ofEdward IandEdward III,notably their confirmations ofMagna Carta,had made it illegal forthe Crownto exact any taxes without the consent ofParliament,the prerogative of levying ship money in time of war had never fallen wholly into abeyance. In 1619James Iaroused no popular opposition by levying £40,000 of ship money on London and £8,550 on other seaport towns.[1]
Opposition[edit]
| Petition of Right | |
|---|---|
 The Petition of Right | |
| Created | 8 May 1628 |
| Ratified | 7 June 1628 |
| Location | Parliamentary Archives, London |
| Author(s) | Sir Edward Coke |
| Purpose | The protection of civil liberties |
| Full text | |
 Petition of RightatWikisource | |
In 1628, Charles I, having prorogued Parliament in early summer and after his assent to thePetition of Right,proceeded to levy ship money on every county in England without Parliament, issuing writs requiring £173,000 to be returned to the exchequer. This was the first occasion when the demand for ship-money aroused serious opposition,[1]in view of the declaration in the petition that
[Y]our subjects have inherited this freedom, that they should not be compelled to contribute to any tax, tallage, aid, or other like charge not set by common consent, in parliament.
Charles' requests tosheriffswere rejected by the overburdened inland populations;Lord Northampton,Lord-Lieutenantof Warwickshire, and theEarl of Banburyin Berkshire, refused to assist in collecting the money; and Charles withdrew the writs.[1]
In 1634, Charles made a secret treaty withPhilip IV of Spainto assist him against the Dutch. To raise funds for this,William Noy,theAttorney-General,suggested that further resort should be had to ship money. Noy investigated such legal learning as there was in support of the demand, and unearthed old records of ship money in theTower of London;some historians, such asHallam,have seen Noy's findings as evidence that, before Charles' use of it, the tax had been disused for centuries.[1]
The King obtained an opinion affirming the legality of the writ fromLord KeeperCoventryand theEarl of Manchester,whereupon the writ was issued in October 1634 and directed to the justices of London and other seaports, requiring them to provide a certain number of ships of war of a prescribed tonnage and equipment, or their equivalent in money, and empowering them to assess the inhabitants for payment of the tax, according to their substance.[1]
Three writs[edit]
The distinctive feature of the writ of 1634 was that it was issued, contrary to all precedent, in time of peace. Charles desired to conceal the true aim of his policy, which he knew would be detested by the country, and he accordingly gave as a pretext for the impost the danger to commerce from pirates, and the general condition of unrest in Europe.[1]
The citizens of London immediately claimed exemption under their charter, while other towns argued as to the amount of their assessment; but no resistance on constitutional grounds appears to have been offered, and £104,000 was collected.[1]
On 9 October 1635 a second writ of ship money was issued, directed to the sheriffs and justices of inland as well as of maritime counties and towns, as in the revoked writ of 1628. £208,000 was demanded, to be obtained by assessment on personal as well asreal property,payment to be enforced bydistraint.[1]
This demand gave rise to popular discontent, which now began to see a determination on the part of the king to dispense altogether with parliamentary government. Charles responded with a written opinion, signed by ten out of twelve judges consulted, to the effect that in time of national danger, of which the Crown was the sole judge, ship money might legally be levied on all parts of the country by writ under theGreat Seal.[1]
The issue of a third writ of ship money on 9 October 1636 made it evident that the ancient restrictions that limited the levying of the tax to the maritime parts of the kingdom and to times of war (or imminent national danger) had been finally swept away, and the king intended to convert it into a permanent and general form of taxation without parliamentary sanction. The judges again, at Charles's request, gave an opinion favourable to the prerogative, which was read byLord Coventryin theStar Chamberand by the judges onassize.[1]
Refusal, then repeal[edit]
Ship money enabled Charles to meet peacetime government expenditures in the 1630s.[2]Payment was, however, refused byJohn Hampden,a wealthyBuckinghamshiregentleman landowner. The case against the latter (R v Hampden)[3]was finally heard before all 12 judges in theCourt of Exchequer Chamberin 1637,[4]afterDenhamhad expressed his doubts toDavenport,who was wary of the four-judge panel which would have sat in a less unusual case.[5]Hampden was defended byOliver St JohnandRobert Holborne.[1]The Solicitor-General,Sir Edward Littleton,and the Attorney-General,Sir John Banks,prosecuted. Hampden's lawyers argued that the taxation was the king going around Parliament and attempting to squeeze money out from the people of England, while defenders of the king suggested that these taxes were necessary for the defense and safety of England.[4]Hampdenlost the case, seven judges to five:[6]
- For the King:
- For Hampden:
Aftermath[edit]
Despite the trial case being won by Charles the opposition to ship money continued.[7]In 1640 a group of citizens of London petitioned Charles directly and at the top of their grievances was against the tax:
The petition starts off by attacking the tax: The pressing and unusual Impositions upon Merchandize, Importing and Exporting, and the urging and Levying of Ship-money, notwithstanding both which, Merchants Ships and Goods have been taken and destroyed both by Turkish and other Pirates.[8]
The narrowness of the case encouraged others to refuse the tax. By 1639, less than 20% of the money demanded was raised. As matters deteriorated in England andScotlandstarting with theBishops' War,ship money proved to be insufficient to finance the king's military needs. It was later stopped by theLong Parliamentwhen they voted theShip Money Act 1640(16 Cha. 1.c. 14). Hampden went on to Parliamentary andCivil Warleadership, only to die early on at theBattle of Chalgrove Field.Finally, half a century later, in the aftermath of theGlorious Revolution,theBill of Rights 1689prohibited all forms of extra-parliamentary taxation.
References[edit]
- ^abcdefghijklOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:McNeill, Ronald John (1911). "Ship-money".InChisholm, Hugh(ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 982.
- ^Gross, David (ed.)We Won’t Pay!: A Tax Resistance ReaderISBN1-4348-9825-3pp. 9–16
- ^Thomas Bayly Howell(1816).State Trials.Vol. 3. pp. 825–1316.
- ^abKahn, Victoria (2004).Wayward Contracts: The Crisis of Political Obligation in England, 1640–1674.Princeton University Press. pp. 90–95.
- ^C. V. WedgwoodThe King's PeaceCollins (1955)
- ^Salmon's State Trials,vol 1, p. 698
- ^"The National Archives | Civil War | Why did people go to war in 1642? | 1637–39 | Source 2".www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.Retrieved2 May2019.
- ^"The National Archives | Civil War | Why did people go to war in 1642? | 1640–42 | Source 1".www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.Retrieved2 May2019.
Further reading[edit]
- Gordon, M. D. "The Collection of Ship-money in the Reign of Charles I."Transactions of the Royal Historical Society4 (1910): 141–162.online
- Keir, D.L. "The Case of the Ship-Money".Law Quarterly Review52, (1936) p. 546.
- Langelüddecke, Henrik. "'I finde all men & my officers all soe unwilling' The Collection of Ship Money, 1635–1640."Journal of British Studies46.3 (2007): 509–542.online
- Mendle, Michael. "The Ship Money Case, The Case of Shipmony, and the Development of Henry Parker's Parliamentary Absolutism".The Historical Journal,Vol. 32, No. 3 (Sept. 1989), pp. 513–536.