Note 21 — Chapter II

A subsidy was an income tax of 4s. in the pound upon the annual value of lands, and a property-tax of 2s. 8d. in the pound upon the actual value of goods. Those whose lands were not worth 20s. a year, or whose personal property was less than £3 in value, were not taxed. These subsidies were levied by commissioners, appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer from amongst the inhabitants of the county or borough. The assessment was made with great laxity; owing to this fact and to a constant rise in the money-value of lands, and goods (the price of wheat for instance, doubling in Elizabeth’s reign), the real state of the subsidy was very much less than the nominal. A tenth or a fifteenth was generally voted in addition to the subsidy. These were originally the real tenth or fifteenth of all the movables or personal property of the subject. Each county or borough was responsible for a certain sum, which was levied by commissioners, appointed by its representatives in the Commons. Since the last valuation had been made in the reign of Edward III., in that of Charles I., when the purchasing power of money had decreased five times, the tenths and fifteenths instead of being taxes of 2s., and of 1s. 4d., were more like taxes of 5d. and 3d., in the £ respectively.