Our Legal Heritage Part 104

There were more poor people and, despite the poor laws, many became rogues or vagabonds or starved to death. Many went from parish to parish to build cottages and consumed all the wood there and then went to another parish. So the parishes were allowed by statute to remove any person coming to settle in any tenement under the value of ten pounds who was likely to be chargeable to it. They were then removed to the last parish were they had resided for at least forty days. Excepted were people temporarily moving to another parish to work at harvest time. The overall effect was to decrease the mobility of people. But a later statute permitted greater movement of poor people by allowing those who were poor for want of work to go to another parish where labor was wanted. They had to bring a certificate of their present parish members.h.i.+p to the new parish, where they could settle if they rented a tenement worth ten pounds a year or served in a parish office. Later, settlement had to be given to inhabitants paying its parish's rates, and unmarried inhabitants hired for one year, and apprentices bound by indenture. But parishes were displeased with the requirement to give settlements to these people because they feared they would become poor and need parish a.s.sistance, thereby increasing the rates to be paid.

Parish poor houses were converted into spinning schools to obtain an income. Parishes of large towns were combined to set up large workhouses, where the poor could be set to unskilled manufacture, but the managers lacked the character and education to make them work.

Because prisoners often died before trial and the poor prisoners became instructed in the practice of thievery in prison, they were set to work on materials provided to them at public expense. No parish was rated at more than 6d. per week for such. The president and governors of corporations oversaw rogues, vagrants, st.u.r.dy beggars, and idle or disorderly persons working in corporations or workhouses.

a.s.sessments were made for building and repairing gaols in order to maintain the health and safe custody of the prisoners. Also, gaol fever, a virulent form of typhus, was so prevalent in the large prisons for criminals and debtors that it frequently spread through the adjacent towns. During some a.s.sizes, it killed sheriffs, lawyers, and justices.

In 1692, London lands were taxed for the relief of orphans.

Churchwardens could seize the goods and chattels of putative fathers and mothers deserting b.a.s.t.a.r.d children.

From 1691 to 1740, Societies for the Reformation of Manners prosecuted poor people for moral offenses.

All hackney coaches and stage coaches in all the realm became required to be licensed. The turnpike system came into use. Tolls were paid for road upkeep and repair by private companies. The local parishes ceased to have this responsibility. John Ogilby wrote the first road book based on actual surveys of the roads. Stage coaches cost a s.h.i.+lling for every five miles and went 40-50 miles a day. The trip from London to Oxford was twelve hours. The company of Coach and Coach Harness Makers was founded with the consent of the king. The body of a coach hung from the frame by leather braces. One axle pivoted for turns. Plate gla.s.s was used in the windows. Rivers improved so that most places were no more distant from navigable waters than a long day's haul on land.

The several post offices were put under the authority of one Postmaster General appointed by the king for the purpose of speed and safety of dispatches, which were carried by horseback. One sheet letter going less than 80 miles cost 2d., and more than 80 miles, 4d.

When the army was disbanded after the Restoration, its officers and soldiers were allowed return to their trades and their apprentices.h.i.+ps without serving the usual seven years. Parishes were required to provide for poor and maimed officers and soldiers who served Charles I or Charles II. The Royal Hospital founded by Charles as a home for veteran soldiers opened in 1692. Greenwich palace was converted to a hospital for seamen and their widows and children to encourage men to become seamen: mariner, seaman, waterman, fisherman, lighterman, bargeman, keelman, or seafaring man in the king's Navy. Also, children of disabled seamen were to be educated at the expense of the hospital.

Charles retained one regiment from which he started a small standing army, which slowly increased in size ever after. The army was primarily mercenary, as it had been in medieval times, with officers buying their commissions. Colonels were the proprietors of their regiments and captains were the proprietors of their companies. The soldiers were ill mannered, swearing and cursing and stealing, sometimes from peoples'

homes, and intimidating people with their swords. The bayonet was invented to attach onto a gun, which were muzzle-loading with a match lock. So pikemen with their long spears became obsolete. Hand grenades and small explosive bombs came into use about 1670.

Explosives were also used in mines. Mines for coal became deeper as coal replaced the use of increasingly expensive wood charcoal for brewing and for brick, gla.s.s, and china manufacture. Flooding of coal, tin and copper mines became a problem. In 1698, Thomas Savery invented the Miner's Friend, a practical atmospheric steam engine without a piston.

There was resort to many devices to fund wars. The land tax was still the primary tax. The customs and excise taxes were often extended to more goods and wares. Sometimes there were duties imposed on marriages, births, and deaths. Also, hawkers, peddlers, and other trading persons going from town to town to other men's houses on foot or on horse carrying wares had to buy a license. There were also loans from privileged companies such as the Bank of England, East India Co., and the South Sea Co. Commissioners were appointed to take and state the account of all money in the public revenue. This discouraged the prevalent corruption of government officials and thereby the people were encouraged to pay their taxes.

The Goldsmiths loaned money to the king and to private persons and to the Exchequer. Receipts from Goldsmiths for storage in strong boxes had become a de facto paper currency. But when the Goldsmiths had no more money to lend, the Bank of England was founded in 1694 under whig auspices to provide money for war. It was the first inst.i.tution to issue notes in excess of its total deposits. However, it was not allowed to lend money to the Crown without the consent of Parliament. It was incorporated as the first English joint-stock bank and had about 1,300 shareholders. These original subscribers were individuals from London from many walks of life, including well-to-do tradesmen and about 12% of whom were women: wives, widows, or spinsters. Not many corporations were original subscribers. Holders of at least 500 pounds could vote, of 2000 pounds could be directors, and of 4000 pounds could be Governor. The Bank issued notes payable to bearer and discounted bills, but these were not legal tender. It lent at 8% to the Crown and occasionally to corporations. Money was also borrowed by offering annuities on single lives. This was the first time the government borrowed directly from the public on a long- term basis.

In 1695 there was inflation due to over issue by the Bank because of inexperience, pressure from government, and the Bank's greed for business. After a dividend of 5% in 1695, the next year there was no dividend and so the bank stock price fell. In 1696, five pound and ten pound short term bonds were sold to the public. Also in that year was the first run on the bank. This occurred two days after clipped money lost currency; people wanted the new recoined money, but the Mint had not supplied the Bank with sufficient supplies. Interest instead of cash was given for notes. Cash was short for months. The Bank's credit was much shaken. It was then given a monopoly so that its notes would not have compet.i.tion. Thereafter, its dividends were good - about 12% per year. Because of its monopoly, its dividends were about 3% above the current going rate of interest. About this time, Exchequer Bills, with interest, were started by the Exchequer and circulated by the Bank of England. They were frequently endorsed many times by successive holders.

The Bank simply took over from the goldsmiths its main everyday business of deposit, with a running cash note [cas.h.i.+er's note, specie note, cash note], which was payable on demand and normally did not bear interest; and a drawn note [precursor to the check, but not on special paper]. The Bank gradually convinced many of its clients to use its "check" [cheque] paper when drawing. The check paper was unique to the Bank and embellished with distinctive scroll work to serve as an obstacle to fraud. Over time the running cash note tended to be for round sums of at least twenty pounds and multiples of five pounds. The Bank of England had a monopoly on issuing notes in the London area.

Country banks arose and issued bearer notes payable on demand and interest-bearing notes in their areas. The Bank of England gave to its depositors the service of paying annually to a designee without further order.

A decision of the common law courts held that bills of exchange (written orders to pay a given a sum on a given date) were transferable to other people by successive endors.e.m.e.nts. So long distance payments no longer had to be made in coin, with all the dangers of highway robbery.

The financial revolution of the 1690s meant that the merchant elite could invest in government bonds or company bonds at 5-6%, or London leases at 10%, as opposed to income from landed estates, which was under 3%. Shareholders were no longer personally liable for company losses.

Interest on loans was no longer considered sinful as long as it was not oppressive. The greater ability to borrow spurred the growth of capitalism.

All brokers and stock jobbers in London and Westminster of bank stock, bank bills, shares and interests in joint stock must be licensed by the mayor, which shall necessitate their taking an oath to exercise their office without fraud or collusion to the best of his skill and knowledge as of 1697. This is to avoid the collusion of fixing values to their own advantage.

Compilations of tables of mortality originated the science of life-statistics. This made life insurance possible. But it was administered by ad hoc offices rather than companies and was not reliable in making payments.

William Petty made a statistical study of economics and determined that the basic values of an economy derive not from its store of treasure, but from its capacity for production. Trade was studied empirically by statistics by new offices such as the Inspector General of Imports and Exports.

Charles inst.i.tuted a hearth tax of 2s. per year in 1662, with constables and officers authorized to verify the number of hearths and stoves in houses. It was repealed in 1688 because it could not be enforced except by exposing every man's house to be entered and searched at pleasure by persons unknown to the people, which was oppressive and a badge of slavery.

By bribes, Charles built up a body of support in Parliament which could be relied upon for a majority. They came to be called "tories" by their opponents. "Tory" had been a term of abuse for Irish Catholic bandits.

The tory and whig groups were known by their disagreement over the authoritarianism of the Crown. The tories were sympathetic to the doctrine of divine right and favored a doctrinally high church. The tories represented landed property and the established church, and usually wore blue in contrast to the purple of royalty. Many royalists became tories. The whigs refused to accept the sacrosanct character of the monarchy. The whigs opined that government depended upon consent of the people and that the people had a right of resistance. They subordinated the Crown to Parliament. The whigs represented the dissenters and the mercantile cla.s.ses, and often wore red. Many former Puritans became whigs. "Whig" had been a term of abuse for Scots Presbyterian rebels and horse thieves.

The gout and venereal disease were common among political leaders. A primitive condom just introduced to the aristocracy from France helped deter syphilis, but was uncomfortable and unreliable.

Under Charles II, the Treasury as a supreme financial body separated from the Exchequer as a depository of revenue. A gold guinea coin was issued. From 1690, government policy was controlled by specific appropriations. Money bills had to originate in the Commons, and could not be amended by the House of Lords.