It is difficult to compute exactly the queen’s ordinary revenue, but it certainly fell much short of five hundred thousand pounds a year.[v**] In the year 1590, she raised the customs from fourteen thousand pounds a year to fifty thousand, and obliged Sir Thomas Smith, who had farmed them, to refund some of his former profits.[v***]
* Winwood, vol. i. p. 117—195.
** D’Ewes, p. 483.
*** Camden, p. 167.
**** Appendix to the Earl of Essex’s Apology.
v Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii.
v* Nanton’s Regalia, chap. 1.
v** Franklyn, in his Annals, (p. 9,) says that the profit of
the kingdom, besides wards and the duchy of Lancaster,
(which amounted to about one hundred and twenty thousand
pounds,) was one hundred and eighty-eight thousand one
hundred and ninety-seven pounds: the crown lands seem to be
comprehended in this computation.
v*** Camden, p. 558. This account of Camden is difficult or
impossible to be reconciled to the state of the customs in
the beginning of the subsequent reign, as they appear in the
journals of the commons. See Hist. of James, chap. 46.
This improvement of the revenue was owing to the suggestions of one Caermarthen; and was opposed by Burleigh, Leicester, and Walsingham: but the queen’s perseverance overcame all their opposition. The great undertakings which she executed with so narrow a revenue, and with such small supplies from her people, prove the mighty effects of wisdom and economy. She received from the parliament, during the course of her whole reign, only twenty subsidies and thirty-nine fifteenths. I pretend not to determine exactly the amount of these supplies; because the value of a subsidy was continually falling; and in the end of her reign it amounted only to eighty thousand pounds,[*] though in the beginning it had been a hundred and twenty thousand. If we suppose that the supplies granted Elizabeth during a reign of forty-five years amounted to three millions, we shall not probably be much wide of the truth.[**] This sum makes only sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty-six pounds a year; and it is surprising, that while the queen’s demands were so moderate, and her expenses so well regulated, she should ever have found any difficulty in obtaining a supply from parliament, or be reduced to make sale of the crown lands. But such was the extreme, I had almost said, absurd parsimony of the parliaments during that period.
* D’Ewes, p. 630.
* Lord Salisbury computed these supplies only at two
millions eight hundred thousand pounds, Journ. 17th Feb.
1609. King James was certainly mistaken when he estimated
the queen’s annual supplies at one hundred and thirty-seven
thousand pounds. Franklyn, p. 44. It is curious to observe
that the minister, in the war begun in 1754, was in some
periods allowed to lavish in two months as great a sum as
was granted by parliament to Queen Elizabeth in forty-five
years. The extreme frivolous object of the late war, and the
great importance of hers, set this matter in still a
stronger light. Money too, we may observe, was in most
particulars of the same value in both periods: she paid
eight pence a day to every foot soldier. But our late
delusions have much exceeded any thing known in history, not
even excepting those of the crusades. For I suppose there is
no mathematical, still less an arithmetical demonstration,
that the road to the Holy Land was not the road to paradise,
as there is, that the endless increase of national debts is
the direct road to national ruin. But having now completely
reached that goal, it is needless at present to reflect on
the past. It will be found in the present year, 1776, that
all the revenues of this island north of Trent and west of
Reading, are mortgaged or anticipated forever. Could the
small remainder be in a worse condition were those provinces
seized by Austria and Prussia? There is only this
difference, that some event might happen in Europe, which
would oblige these great monarchs to disgorge their
acquisitions. But no imagination can figure a situation
which will induce our creditors to relinquish their claims,
or the public to seize their revenues. So egregious indeed
has been our folly, that we have even lost all title to
compassion in the numberless calamities that are awaiting
us.
They valued nothing in comparison of their money: the members had no connection with the court; and the very idea which they conceived of the trust committed to them, was, to reduce the demands of the crown, and to grant as few supplies as possible. The crown, on the other hand, conceived the parliament in no other light than as a means of supply. Queen Elizabeth made a merit to her people of seldom summoning parliaments.[*] No redress of grievances was expected from these assemblies: they were supposed to meet for no other purpose than to impose taxes.
Before the reign of Elizabeth, the English princes had usually recourse to the city of Antwerp for voluntary loans; and their credit was so low, that, besides paying the high interest of ten or twelve per cent., they were obliged to make the city of London join in the security. Sir Thomas Gresham, that great and enterprising merchant, one of the chief ornaments of this reign, engaged the company of merchant-adventurers to grant a loan to the queen; and as the money was regularly repaid, her credit by degrees established itself in the city, and she shook off this dependence on foreigners.[**]
In the year 1559, however, the queen employed Gresham to borrow for her two hundred thousand pounds at Antwerp, in order to enable her to reform the coin, which was at that time extremely debased.[***] She was so impolitic as to make, herself, an innovation in the coin; by dividing a pound of silver into sixty-two shillings, instead of sixty, the former standard. This is the last time that the coin has been tampered with in England.
* Strype, vol. iv. p. 124.
** Stowe’s Survey of London, book i. p. 286.
*** MS. of Lord Royston’s, from the paper office, p. 295.
Queen Elizabeth, sensible how much the defence of her kingdom depended on its naval power, was desirous to encourage commerce and navigation: but as her monopolies tended to extinguish all domestic industry, which is much more valuable than foreign trade, and is the foundation of it, the general train of her conduct was ill calculated to serve the purpose at which she aimed, much less to promote the riches of her people. The exclusive companies also were an immediate check on foreign trade. Yet, notwithstanding these discouragements, the spirit of the age was strongly bent on naval enterprises; and besides the military expeditions against the Spaniards, many attempts were made for new discoveries, and many new branches of foreign commerce were opened by the English. Sir Martin Frobisher undertook three fruitless voyages to discover the north-west passage: Davis, not discouraged by this ill success, made a new attempt, when he discovered the straits which pass by his name. In the year 1600, the queen granted the first patent to the East India Company: the stock of that company was seventy-two thousand pounds; and they fitted out four ships, under the command of James Lancaster, for this new branch of trade. The adventure was successful; and the ships returning with a rich cargo, encouraged the company to continue the commerce.
The communication with Muscovy had been opened in Queen Mary’s time by the discovery of the passage to Archangel: but the commerce to that country did not begin to be carried on to a great extent till about the year 1569. The queen obtained from the czar an exclusive patent to the English for the whole trade of Muscovy;[*] and she entered into a personal as well as national alliance with him. This czar was named John Basilides, a furious tyrant, who, continually suspecting the revolt of his subjects, stipulated to have a safe retreat and protection in England. In order the better to insure this resource, he purposed to marry an English woman; and the queen intended to have sent him Lady Anne Hastings; daughter of the earl of Huntingdon: but when the lady was informed of the barbarous manners of the country, she wisely declined purchasing an empire at the expense of her ease and safety.[**]