Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	great_a	king_n	monarch_n	1,055	5	9.5526	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37238	Jus imponendi vectigana, or, The learning touching customs, tonnage, poundage, and impositions on merchandizes, asserted as well from the rules of the common and civil law, as of generall reason and policy of state / by Sir John Davis ...	Davies, John, Sir, 1569-1626.	1659 (1659)	Wing D403; ESTC R36082	63,305	189

upon Salt amounting to an exceeding great Revenue the Impost of Wines upon every Vessell carried into any walled Towns or Suburbs thereof and payable although it be transported thence again before it be sold la hault passage or de maine forrein for Merchandizes exported le traject forrene for Merchandizes imported la solid de Cinquants mil holmes imposed upon Cities walled Towns and the Suburbs onely and after layd upon Town and Country without distinction the common positions for provisions the tenthes paid by all Ecclesiasticall persons These and other Impositions of the like nature are layd and levied upon the Subjects of France by the absolute power and Prerogative of the King and though many of these were imposed at first upon extraordinary occasions and set but for a time yet the succeeding Princes have continued them from time to time and the most part of them made ordinary and perpetuall by King Lewis the 11. who was wont to say France was a Meadow which he could have mowed as often as he pleased In Spain there is an Imposition named Alcavala imposed as well upon the Nobility as the Commons which was first raised by Alphonsus the 12. to expell the Mores and for the expurgation of Algiers but afterwards it was made perpetuall and is now a principall part of the Royall Patrimony Gutturis de Gabellis Quaest. 174 this Imposition was at first but the twentieth part but afterwrds it was raised to the tenth of every mans Estate which doth far surmount the highest Impositions that ever were layd in England by the Kings Prerogative without Act of Parliament This Alcavala is an Imposition within the Land but the Impositions upon Merchandizes exported and imported are far higher especially upon Merchants Strangers for their common Impositions upon Strangers is five parts upon the hundred and in the year 1604 they imposed thirty of the hundred as is before declared and upon the Ingate of Indian Spices into Portugall the King of Spain doth lay the greatest rates that ever were set in Christendome although upon the outgate the rates are more moderate In Italy the Impositions and Gabells set upon every kind of thing by the States and Princes there are intolerable and innumerable Non mihi si Centum Linguae sunt oraque Centum Ferrea vox Italorum omnes numerare gabellas Cunct a gabellarum percurrere nomina possem Especially upon the great Towns and Teritories that are subject to the Great Duke of Tusknie where there is not any roots nor any herb nor the least thing that is necessary for the life of man that is bought and sold or brought into any Town but there is a Gabell or Imposition set upon it where no Inholder Baker Brewer or Artificer can exercise his Trade but the Great Duke will share with him in his gain by laying some Imposition upon him where no man can travell by Land or by Water but at every Bridge at every Ferry at every Wharf or Key at every Gate of a Town the Garbellor arrests him and is ready to strip him naked to search what goods he hath about him for which he ought to pay the Garbell In the Popes Territories the Impositions which His Holinesse doth lay upon his Subjects as a Temporall Prince are as many and as heavy as those that are levied by the Duke of Tuskanie in so much as when Sixtus Quintus had set an Imposition upon every thing that served for the use of mans life Pasquill made hast to dry his Shirt in the Sun fearing the Pope would set some Imposition upon the heat of the Sun miastingo saith he in the 16. sole sevenda I omit to speak of the Exactions of the Court of Rome in another kind which are infinite and which long lay heavie upon the Western Countries of Christendome untill of late years some Nations did free themselves thereof by rejecting the Yoke of the Bishop of Rome In the Seigniory of Venice the Gabells upon the Land were more moderate than in the other parts of Italy But that City being the Lady of the Adriatique Sea doth use by prescription a high Prerogative in laying Impositions upon all Merchandizes arriving within the Gulf Civitas Venetiorum saith Baltholus potest pro maritmeis mercibus Gabellas imponere quia est Civitas in Mari situata Veneti saith Baldus ex consuetudine sunt domini maris Adriatici possunt statuere super Gabellis maris wherein they observe a profitable and politique course for upon the Commodities of other Nations which are of goods in their Common-wealth they lay the easier Impositions sometimes five sometimes seven sometimes ten upon the hundred which doth exceed the highest Imposition in England five in the hundred at the least In the Low Countries the Impositions which they call Excizes paid by the Retaylors of Wines and other Cōmodities and not by the Merchant are the highest in Christendome and yet we perceive that people to thrive and grow rich withall for an improved high rent doth so quicken the industrie of the Farmer as he thriveth oftentimes better than his Neighbour who is a Free-holder and payeth no rent at all howbeit to draw Trade and to invite all Nations to Comerce with them so to make their Country a Staple Store house or Magizen of all Europe they do set but easie rates upon Merchandizes imported but when they once have gotten their cōmodities in to their hands if any Merchant will export the same again hee shall pay a greater Custome The Grand Seignior of Turkie doth impose sometimes ten in the hundred sometimes twenty in the hundred upon Merchant Strangers who Trade into the Levant and I could speak of his other Exactions and Impositions upon his Vassalls but that I think it not meet to compare that Regions Tyrant to the Princes and States of Christendome I may remember at last the Great Toll which the King of Denmark taketh of every Ship that passeth into the Sound taking advantage of a narrow Straight between Elsmore and Copman Haven whereas the King of England being the undoubted Lord of the Narrow Seas between Dover and Callis might take the like Toll if it pleased him and by the same right might participate of the great gain of Fishing which the Busses of Holland and Zeland do make yearly upon the Coasts of Great Britain Thus we see by this comparison that the King of England doth lay but his little Finger upon his Subjects when other Princes and States do lay the●● heavy loins upon their people wh●●●●●the reason of this difference fro●●●hence commeth it assuredly not from a different Power or Prerogative for the King of England is as absolute a Monarch as any Emperor or King in the world and hath as many Prerogatives incident to his Crown whence then proceedeth it to what profitable cause may we ascribe it certainly to divers causes profitable and

come in and out of his Streams and Ports with their Ships and Merchandizes Podagium in Mari debet solvi sicut in terra si sit impositum per dominum Maris saith Baldus and the rights belonging to the Lord of the Sea saith another Doctor are Ius navigandi jus piscandi jus imponendi vectigalia pro utroque Again the Kings of England have the like Prerogative in the government of Trade and Comerce belonging to this Kingdome as other Princes and States have within their Dominions he must of necessity have the like absolute power as they all have to lay Impositions upon Merchandizes imported and exported otherwise he cannot possible hold the ballance of Trade upright or perserve an equality of Traffique between his own Subjects and the Subjects of Forein Princes and consequently it will lye in the power of our Neighbours to drain and draw away all our wealth in a short time or else to overthrow all Trade and Comerce between us and them at their pleasure and we shall have no means to encounter or avoid the mischief for their Princes having sole power to impose will have the sole making and managing of the Market between their Subjects and us and consequently may set what price they please upon all Merchandizes enforcing us to sell our Commodities cheap and buy their Commodities dear onely by this advantage of laying Impositions And therefore the King of England must of necessity have the same absolute power to lay Impositions upon Merchādizes as other Princes have as well ut evitetur absurdum as to prevent the ruin of the Common-wealth by the equall ballancing of Trade Comerce between his Subjects and the Subjects of Forein Princes Upon this reason when the Duke of Venice in the time of Q. Eliz. as is before expressed had laid an Imposition of one Ducket upon a 100 li. weight of Currans carried out of his Dominions by any English Merchant the Queen by speciall Patent in the twelfth year of the Reign did enable the Merchants which did Trade into the Levant to levie five shillings and six pence upon every 100 livre. weight of Currans brought into England by any Merchant Stranger Upon the like reason when in the time of King Hen. 8. the Emperor and the French King had raised the valuation of their monies both so high as there grew not only an inequality of Trade between their Subjects and the Subjects of England but our monies standing at their former values were carried out of the Realm in great quantities The King in the 24 year of his Reign granted a Commission unto Cadinall Woolsey to enhance the values of English monies likewise by that means to set ballance of trade even again and to keep our monies within the Realm Upon the same reason of State when the King of Spain that now is in the year 1614. had laid an Imposition of thirty upon the hundred on all Merchandizes imported and exported by Strangers the French King Hen. 4. was quickly sensible of it and did forthwith impose the like in his Kingdom then it followed of necessity that other Nations should follow and imitate them whereby it came to passe that Comerce of Merchants generally throughout Christendome began to decay which being perceived by these two great Princes they agreed to take away those excessive Impositions upon severall Treaties between them and the Italians and after between them and the English and the Dutch Briefly we find examples in all ages that whensoever by reason of Warre or for any other cause any Forein Prince gave the least impediment to Merchants in their Trade our Princes gave the like entertainment to their Merchants again This is declared in Magna Charta cap. 30. where it is plainly expressed what entertainment the Merchants of all Nations should expect in England Habeant Salvum securum conductum saith the Charter Praeterquam in tempore guerrae si fuerint de terra contra nos guerrina then as our Merchants are used with them so shall their Merchants be used with us 46 Edw. 3. The Countesse of Flanders having arrested the goods of the English Merchants there the King in recompence of their losses granted unto them all the goods of the Flemings in England whereof there is a notable Record mentioned before 1 Edw. 3. pat m 19. in Arch. Turris There are many other examples of mutuall embarments of Trade between the Flemings us and also between us and the French men during our Wars with France which I omit I will recite onely one president in the 40 year of Queen Elizabeth at which times the Merchants of the Haunce Towns having by sinister information procured the Emperour to banish our English Merchants out of the Empire the Queen by her speciall Commission did authorize the Mayor and Sheriffs of London to repair to the Still-yard being the Hostell of the Haunces to seize that House into her Majesties hands and there to give warning to the Merchants of the Haunce Towns to forbear Traffique with any of her Subjects in England and to depart the Realm upon that very day which was assigned to our Merchants to depart out of the Empire Lastly for the ordering and government of Trade among our own Merchants in Forein Countries and at home our Kings by their Prerogatives have instituted divers Societies and Companies of Merchants as the Company of Merchant Adventures the Muscovia Company the Turkie Company the East India Company c. all which are created upholden and ruled by the Kings Charter only whereupon I may conclude that the Kings of England having the same power in governing and ballancing Trade as other Princes have may justly execute the same power as well by laying Impositions upon Merchandizes as by the other means which are before expressed CHAP. XXII Of the several objections that are made against the Kings Prerogative in laying Impositions upon Merchandizes and the several Answers thereunto THE first Objection touching the property which all free Subjects have in their goods First it is objected that under a Royal Monarchy where the Prince doth govern by a positive Law the Subjects have a property in their Goods and inheritance in their Lands Ad Reges potestas omnium pertinet ad singulos proprietas So as the King hath no such Prerogative say they whereby he may take away the Lands or Goods of a Subject without his consent unless it be in a case of Forfeiture And therefore though Samuel foretold the people when they desired a King Hoc erit Ius Regis tollere agros vestros vineas oliveta dare servis suis Yet Ahab though he were a wicked King did not claim that Prerogative when he coveted Naboths Vineyard neither did he enter into it untill Naboth by false witnesses was condemned and stoned to death for blasphemy and then he took it for a lawfull Escheat but when the King doth

over and above the duties payable by Denizens for the same commodities which grant being made by the Merchants of every Nation not being incorporated and made a body politick is in respect of them of no force of the rule of the common Law until the Kings charter made it good and maintained it untill it was confirmed by Parliament 27 Edw. 3. which was fifty years after the date of the Charter upon the matter these duties payable by Merchant Strangers were onely Impositions raised and established by the Kings charter which Charter being made in England was after wards established exemplised under the Great Seal of England and transmitted into Ireland with a special Writ directed to the Officers of the Customes there to levy three pence of the pound and other duties mentioned in that Charter as appeareth in the Red Book of the Exchequer there by vertue of which Writ onely without Act of parliament the three pence of the pound and other duties were levied and paid to the Crown in Ireland CHAP. XII Of the ancient Customes payable for Wines called Prizage and Butlerage THe most ancient Custome payable for Wines is Prizage which is not any sum of Money but two Tunns of Wine in specie out of every Ship freighted with twenty Tun the one to be taken before the Mast and the other behind the Mast of the Ship and the price which the King himself did limit to pay was twenty shillings onely for every Tun as appeareth by an ancient Record of 52 Hen. 3. whereby we may conjecture what easie rates the King gave for the prizes of other Merchandizes This Custome of Prizage was meerly an Imposition for it could not be granted by the Merchants of Forreign Nations being no body politique as is before declared neither is there any Act of Parliament wherby our own Merchants did ever grant it unto the Crown This duty of Prizage was remitted unto the Stranger by the Charter of 31 Edw. 1. before mentioned and in lieu thereof by vertue of the same Charter the King before mentioned receiveth two shillings for every Tun of Wine brought in by Strangers which we now call Butlerage but Prizage is paid in Specie by all our own Merchants at this day the Citizens of London only excepted who having remissiō of Prizage by a special charge were charged with a new Imposition called Gauge viz. de quolibet dolio 1 d. de vinis venientibus London which was accounted Forreign Magno Rot. An. 1 Edw. 1. in the Office of the Pipe at Westminster the last of these Impositions which by the continuance have gotten the name of Custome was laid and imposed three hundred years since and have ever since been approved and are now maintained by the Common Law of England as the lawfull and ancient Inheritance of the Crown CHAP. XIII Of the ancient Officers which our Kings have created by vertue of their Prerogatives to search and over-see all sorts of Merchandizes and to collect the duties payable for the same AS our ancient Kings by vertue of their Prerogative without Parliament have laid the Customes or Impositions before expressed upon all sorts of Merchandizes exported and imported so by the same Prerogative have they ordained severall sorts of Officers to search and over-see those Merchandizes on which they had laid those Impositions namely the Gauger of Wines a high Officer is as ancient as the Imposition of the Gauge it self before mentioned the Alneger of the cloths which is more ancient than any Act of Parliament that makes mention of the cloths for there is a Record of 14 Edw. 2. in Archivis turris which speaketh of the Alneger the Packer of Woolls the Garbellor of spices besides the Officer of the Customes viz. the Customer Comtroller and Searcher all which Officers have ever taken Fees of Merthants both Denizens and Aliens not by grant of the Merchants or Act of Parliament but by vertue of their severall Patents granted from the King CHAP. XIV Of other Impositions besides the ancient Customes before mentioned laid upon Merchandizes by severall Kings and Queens since the Conquest some of which Impositions have been discontinued or remitted and some of them are continued and paid at this day and first of the Imposition set by King Edw. 1. over and besides the Customes spoken of before IT appeareth in the Record of the Exchequer of England That in 16 Edw. 1. an Imposition of four shillings was laid upon every Tun of Wine brought into England from certain Towns in Gascogine and Spain and at this day answered and compted for duty for the space of ten years untill the 26 Edw. 1. when it was remitted but during the Kings pleasure only it appeareth likewise 25 Edw. 1. by the Charter of the confirmation then made of the Great Charter that King Edw. 1. had for divers years before set and laid an Imposition of fourty shillings upon every Sack of Wooll exported which ad instantiam Communitatis he was pleased to remit which remittall was of meer Grace upon the Petition of the Commons after that Imposition had been laid many years before and it is to be noted that this Imposition of fourty shillings upon a Sack of Wooll was taken and levied above twenty years together after the new Imposition of the demi mark upon a Sack of Wooll which was set and established for that begun in 3 Edw. 1. and this Imposition of fourty shillings continued till 25 Edw. 1. which is a strong argument that the first establishment of the demi mark was not by a binding Act of Parliament with a Negative voice that no other duties should be taken for those Merchandizes as was surmized but was only a mitigation or reducement of a greater Custome paid before which was done of meer Grace upon some reason of State at that time CHAP. XV Of the Imposition set and taken by King Edward the second KIng Edward the second in the beginning of his Reign did as well take the ancient as the new Custome upon Wooll Wooll-fells and Leather which ancient Custom must needs be intended an ancient Imposition over and besides the demi mark which was then called the new Custome and this appeareth by a Record in the Tower 3 Ed. 2. Claus. memb. 16. where the King directeth his Writ collectoribus suis tam antiquae quam novae customae lanarum pellium corriorum and requireth them to pay certain Debts of his Fathers King Edward 1. out of their old and new Customes and a hundred thousand pound pro damnis occasione retardationis solutionis debitis c. and howbeit afterwards he being a weak Prince and misguided by ill Counsell and over-ruled by his unruly Barons was driven first to suspend the payments of his Customes of three pence the pound and other duties contained in Charta Mercatoria during pleasure only as appeareth by his Writs of Supersedeas directed to the Collectors of his