nce. Minor contrivances, e.g. the "weekly meal" tax, indicate
the financial difficulties of the parliament, but are otherwise
unimportant. Owing to its control of the sea and the principal ports the
parliament was able to command the customs revenue; and in this case
also it remodelled the duties, abolishing the wool subsidy and
readjusting the general customs by a new book of rates. A more extensive
tariff was adopted in 1656, and various restrictions in harmony with the
mercantilist ideas of the time were enforced. Thus French wines, silk
and wool were excluded from 1649 to 1656. Far more revolutionary in its
effects was the introduction of the excise or inland duties on goods--a
step which Elizabeth, James I. and Charles I. had hesitated to take.
Beginning (1643) with duties on ale, beer and spirits, it was soon
extended to meat, salt and various textiles. Meat and domestic salt were
relieved in 1647, and the taxation became definitely established under
the administration of commissioners appointed for the purpose. Powers to
let out the collection to farmers were granted, and a bid for both
excise and customs amounted in 1657 to L1,100,000. Confiscations of
church lands and those belonging to royalists, feudal charges and
special collections helped to make up the total of L83,000,000 raised
during the nineteen years of this revolutionary period. Another mark of
change was the removal of the exchequer to Oxford, leaving, however, the
real fiscal machinery at the disposal of the committees that directed
the affairs of the parliament. Under Cromwell the exchequer was
re-established (1654) in a form suited for the changes in the finances,
the office of treasurer being placed in the hands of commissioners.

A complete reconstruction of the revenue system became necessary at the
Restoration. The feudal tenures and dues, with the prerogative rights of
purveyance and pre-emption, which had been abolished by order of the
parliament, could not be restored. Their removal was confirmed, and the
new revenues that had been developed were resorted to as a substitute.
Careful inquiry showed that just before the Civil War the king's annual
revenue had reached nearly L900,000. The needs of the restored monarchy
were estimated at L1,200,000 per annum, and the loyal spirit of the
commons provided sources of revenue deemed sufficient for this amount.
An hereditary excise on beer and ale was voted as a compensation for the
loss of the feud