to parsimony
with Henry VII., is followed by lavish prodigality in the case of Henry
VIII. Elizabeth, again, presents in her reign a very different financial
policy from that of either her father or her grandfather. The desire for
a vigorous foreign policy, the hope of encouraging native industry, and
the sentiment of retaliation against the trade regulations of other
countries are found to interfere with the aim--strictly followed in
earlier times--of obtaining the largest possible yield. All the
different parts of the public economy were regarded as existing only in
order to be utilized for the furtherance of national power. It is this
more complex character in policy, coupled with the new influences, that
the discovery of America, the Renaissance and the Reformation brought
into operation, which gives special interest to the financial problems
of the 16th century.

Taking in order the great heads of public income placed at the disposal
of the sovereign, it appears that the first head of the old
receipts--the crown lands--had been from time to time diminished by
grants to the king's relatives and favourites, but had also gained
through resumptions and forfeitures. On the whole, the loss and gain
down to the close of the 14th century was probably balanced. The revenue
was, however, inelastic, and declined in relative importance. It has
been said that "it was in the 15th century that the great impoverishment
of the crown estate began." The Lancastrian kings (especially Henry VI.)
lost most of the lands attached to the crown through pressure of
expenditure and the wholesale plunder of officials. Though the civil
wars of the 15th century brought in many forfeited estates the grants of
Edward IV. kept down the increase. But the chief opportunity for
aggrandizement was afforded by the dissolution of the monasteries and
gilds under Henry VIII. The great mass of property that passed into the
royal possession in this way was in part assigned to nobles and
officials, while most of the remainder was distributed in the reigns of
his children. The dwindling importance of the public revenue from land
and rent charges is as noticeable under the Tudors as in earlier times.
In like manner the feudal dues had fallen into a very subordinate place
notwithstanding the attempts made on particular occasions to enforce
them with greater rigour. The force of personal monarchy exercised by
the Tudors, depending as it did on popular support, t