al dues, and temporary excises on spirits, vinegar,
coffee, chocolate and tea were added. All differences of "old" and "new"
customs and subsidies had disappeared under the Commonwealth. The
general or "great statute" (1660) provided a scale of duties--5% on
imports and exports, with special duties on wines and woollen
cloths--accompanied by a new book of rates. A house tax, levied after
the French pattern, on each hearth, was introduced in 1662 and became
established. Poll taxes were used as an extraordinary resource, as were
the last subsidies, voted in 1663, and then for ever abandoned. Licences
on retailers and fees on law proceedings were further aids to the
revenue, which, in the later years of Charles II. and in the short reign
of his successor, was with difficulty kept up to the level of the
increasing expenditure. The Commonwealth assessments were revived on
several occasions, and indirect taxation was made more rigorous by the
imposition of extra duties on brandy, tobacco and sugar, as also on
French linens and silks. A very important development was the placing of
the customs (1670) and the excise (1683) in the hands of special
commissioners, instead of the system of farming them out to private
collectors. The approach to modern conditions is further evidenced by
the greater care in the administration. Amongst expert officials Dudley
North (q.v.), as commissioner of customs, was the most distinguished. In
this period, too, the beginning of the public debt as in the
appropriation of the bankers' deposits may be found.

The Revolution of 1688 may be regarded both on its constitutional and
financial sides as the completion of the work of the Long Parliament. In
the latter respect its chief effects were: (1) the transfer of the
administration of the finances from the king's nominees to officials
under parliamentary control, (2) the consequent application of the
revenue to the purposes designated by parliamentary appropriation, (3)
the rapid expansion of the various kinds of revenue, particularly the
indirect taxes, (4) the rise and growth of the national debt, combined
with the creation of an effective banking system. The greater part of
the 18th century was occupied with the working out of these results.

The government of William III. had to face the expenses of a great war
and to allay discontent at home. As a preliminary step to the necessary
settlement of the revenue a return was prepared, showing the tax
r