revenue had kept pace with inflation, then Elizabeth would, by 1603, have been receiving £168,000 per annum rather than the actual figure of well below £100,000. The problem infected all the main areas of ordinary revenue shown in Figure 11. Figure 10 A table to show the failure of ordinary revenue to keep pace with – inflation. Financial Issue Percentage increase 1558 1603 – Inflation 75% Ordianry income 50% Crown rents 25% Figure 11. A diagrammatic representation of the Ordinary revenue streams for Elizabethan government. What did the government do wrong ? After her early successes, TA Morris reflects that finances settled into a “Elizabethan characteristically conservative rut”. He continues that they were marked by personnel and machinery...and most importantly...static “unimaginantive income”. Perhaps the biggest area of criticism was that in Elizabeth’s forty five year reign the tax records were never updated. Elizabeth continued to use the Marian Book of Rates from 1556. Obviously each year that this was used, ownership records were less accurate, and revenue fell. Elizabeth and Cecil seemed to have been reluctant to update the records because this would have been politically unpopular. As states, DM Palliser “administrative interia was the price that the government paid for political stability”.
revenue had kept pace with inflation, then Elizabeth would, by 1603, have been receiving £168,000 per annum rather than the actual figure of well below £100,000. The problem infected all the main areas of ordinary revenue shown in Figure 11. Figure 10 – A table to show the failure of ordinary revenue to keep pace with inflation. Financial Issue Percentage increase 1558 – 1603 Inflation 75% Ordianry income 50% Crown rents 25% Figure 11. A diagrammatic representation of the Ordinary revenue streams for Elizabethan government. What did the government do wrong ? After her early successes, TA Morris reflects that “Elizabethan finances settled into a characteristically conservative rut”. He continues that they were marked by “unimaginantive personnel and machinery...and most importantly...static income”. Perhaps the biggest area of criticism was that in Elizabeth’s forty five year reign the tax records were never updated. Elizabeth continued to use the Marian Book of Rates from 1556. Obviously each year that this was used, ownership records were less accurate, and revenue fell. Elizabeth and Cecil seemed to have been reluctant to update the records because this would have been politically unpopular. As DM Palliser states, “administrative interia was the price that the government paid for political stability”.
Topic-3-fin-econ-social.docx