in committee of supply. (b) The authority for the issue of the sums so granted is, properly speaking, not complete without an order from the sovereign under the sign manual, and to meet this a provision is usually inserted in the Consolidated Fund Acts, authorizing the Bank of England to advance the sums named in the Acts on the security of Treasury bills.

Finally, at the end of the financial year an Appropriation Act is passed, which embodies the various Consolidated Fund Acts passed during the year, authorizes the payment out of the Consolidated Fund of any balance required to make up the total of the supply grants, and specifically appropriates the sums so granted to the specific her's of expenditure embodied in the estimates. The authority for the payment out of the various sums by the Treasury is then made complete by a royal order under the sign manual. (c)

Such money bills, whether Finance Acts, or Consolidated Fund Acts, are subject to the same procedure as to first, second, and third reading, and sending up to the House of Lords, as other public bills, which have already been treated of. (d) But by the Parliament Act, 1911, if a money bill (viz. a public bill which, in the opinion of the Speaker of the House of Commons, deals only with certain matters specified by the Act relating to money) is sent up to the Lords at least one month before the end of the session, and is not passed by the latter within one month, then, unless the House of Commons otherwise directs, such bill is to be presented to the Crown and becomes an Act of Parliament on the royal assent being signified. (e) Any such bill when sent up to the Lords and when presented for the royal assent must be endorsed with a certificate signed by the Speaker of the House of Commons that it is a money bill; and before giving his certificate the Speaker is to consult, if practicable, two members appointed from the chairmen's panel at the beginning of each session by the Committee of Selection. (ƒ)

(b) See May's Parl. Pract., 555.

(c) See May's Parl. Pract. 558.

(d) See p. 83, ante.

(e) Parliament Act, 1911, 1 & 2 Geo. V. c. 13, s. 1 (1), (2).
(f) Ib. s. 1 (2), (3).

CHAPTER V.

THE PUBLIC REVENUE.

The Revenue generally. The revenue for the year ending March 31, 1914, amounted to the sum of £198,242,897, made up as follows:

The whole of this revenue is paid into the Consolidated Fund account at the Bank of England, created in 1787, (a) and payments out are made only by the authority of an Act of Parliament, and come under two heads: (1) Consolidated Fund services, or payments made under the authority of a permanent Act. These include the interest on the national debt, the civil list, annuities to the royal family and pensions, salaries of the judges and other officers, and certain miscellaneous items. (2) Supply services, or payments made on the authority of annual Acts, termed Consolidated Fund Acts, which embody resolutions passed by the House of Commons in Committee of Ways and Means, and authorize the payment out of various lump sums to meet the current expenditure of (a) 27 Geo. III. c. 13.

the year. These sums, though authorized by Act of Parliament, cannot properly be issued by the Treasury without the authority of an order from the sovereign under the royal sign manual. (b) This difficulty is obviated by a provision inserted in the various Consolidated Fund Acts empowering the Bank of England to advance the amounts covered by the Acts on the security of Treasury bills. The amount so advanced forms part of the Consolidated Fund, and is placed to the credit of the Exchequer account, which is available for current expenditure by the Treasury. At the end of each financial year an Appropriation Act is passed which authorizes the payment out of the Consolidated Fund of any balance (c) required to make up the total amount of the supply grants voted in Committee of Supply, and appropriates the sums already granted by the various Consolidated Fund Acts (d) to meet the expenditure upon the public services in accordance with the estimate already considered and sanctioned by the House in Committee of Supply. Finally, an order from the sovereign under the royal sign manual completes the authority for the issue by the Treasury of the sums so granted.

The enormous growth of the national revenue in the last two hundred and fifty years becomes apparent when we compare the sum at present paid unto the Exchequer with the revenue raised under the Commonwealth. The principal sources of revenue at that time were the fixed assessments (generally made monthly) on realty and personalty, (e) the excise, and the customs. On the average the sum produced by these did not much exceed £2,000,000, (f) though the actual purchasing power of money was then, of course, considerably greater than it is now. The whole revenue of Charles I. does not appear to have exceeded what to us would seem the modest sum of £900,000; (g) it is hardly to be wondered at that that monarch should have found a difficulty in carrying on the business of the country.

(b) See May's Parl. Pract., 558.

(c) This balance is ascertained by deducting the total sums granted by Consolidated Fund Acts from the total of the supply grants.

(d) For an example of a Consolidated Fund Act, see 3 Ed. VII. c. 3. (e) These assessments developed later into the present Land Tax. See post, p. 108.

(f) See Hume's Hist. of England, vii. 337 et seq.

(g) Ib. 338, n.

The old practice seems to have been to farm out the revenues. In 1650 commissioners were appointed to collect customs and excise, but in 1657 Cromwell returned to the old system, and seems to have obtained a larger sum than the commissioners. At the present day the collection and management of the taxes is under the control of various bodies of commissioners, and regulated by statute. (h)

The Customs.

History. The origin of the customs is to be found in the early Norman period, when it became customary for merchants to pay tolls to the king on all merchandise imported or exported as a sort of passport or safe conduct for themselves and their goods, which were chiefly wine by way of import, and wool, woolfells, and leather by way of export. The toll on wine, which was the principal import, was termed prisage, or butlerage, and later on tunnage, and consisted in the right to take one tun from every cargo of ten tuns, and two tuns for every cargo of twenty tuns. (i)

The amount of these tolls became fixed in course of time, and were termed consuetudines, or customs, and Magna Carta expressly forbade the exaction of unjust tolls, or any except the ancient and just consuetudines. In 1275, at the instance of the merchants, Parliament granted to Edward I. certain duties on wool, woolfells, and leather exported from England and Wales, and these duties became known subsequently as the ancient customs (antiqua custuma). (k) In 1302 Edward I. came to an agreement with the foreign merchants by which they agreed to pay two shillings for every tun of wine instead of the old prisage, and certain additional duties on wool, woolfells, leather, and cloth, and a poundage of threepence on all other goods imported or exported. These duties became known as the nova sive parva custuma, as opposed to the antiqua sive magna custuma. Additional duties under the name of subsidies of tunnage and poundage were granted to Richard II. in 1397 for life, and these life grants became more or less customary in subsequent reigns.

(h) See The Taxes Management Act, 1880 (43 & 44 Vict. c. 19). (i) See Dowell's Hist. of Taxation, i. 83.

(k) Ib. i. 85.

All the Tudor monarchs received life grants of tunnage and poundage, and under Mary (circa 1558) the "Book of Rates" was adopted, which specified values at which goods were to be rated in lieu of the old system of accepting the merchants' valuation. Under Elizabeth a new book of rates was introduced, and was continued in use when the customs duties, or subsidies of tunnage and poundage as they were called, were granted to James I. for life. (l)

On the accession of Charles I. Parliament did not follow the practice of granting the customs for the life of the sovereign, and proposed to limit the grant to one year. Charles, however, proceeded to levy the tax under Order of the Council by Royal Warrant, and continued to levy it during the period 1629-1640, in which he reigned without a Parliament. On reassembling in 1641, the Long Parliament granted the customs for two months, (m) and this grant was subsequently continued. (n)

After the Restoration in 1660, an Act called the Great Statute (0) granted the customs to Charles II. for life, and established a new book of rates. James II., on his accession, imprudently levied the customs by proclamation before they had been granted by Parliament. The regular Parliamentary grant for life was, however, made shortly after. (p)

After the revolution of 1688, Parliament showed their intention of keeping the revenue in their own hands by granting the customs duties for four years only; (q) but a few years later a new subsidy of customs was granted to the king for life. (r)

The subsequent history of the customs is one of increasing taxations to meet the increased expenditure of 130 years of war. In 1815, at the termination of the war with France, every conceivable article was subject to taxation, and the condition of the Englishman was thus described by Sidney Smith in 1820, in an article in the Edinburgh Review: "The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine,

(1) 1 Jac. I. c. 33.

(n) Ib. c. 36.

(p) 1 Jac. II. c. 1.

(r) 9 & 10 Will. III. c. 23.

C.L.E.

(m) 16 Car. I. c. 8.
(0) 12 Car. II. c. 4.
(q) 2 Will. & M. c. 4.

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