An Act for raising Money by a Poll and otherwise, to enable His Majesty to enter into an actual War against the French King, and for prohibiting several French Commodities.
An Act for repealing certaine Clauses in an Act of Parlyament made in the Nine and twentyeth and Thirtyeth yeares of the Raigne of His late Majestie for Prohibiting French Commoddities.
The Prohibition of 1678 (29 & 30 Cha. 2. c. 1) was an Act of the Parliament of England. Its full title was "An Act for raising Money by a Poll and otherwise, to enable His Majesty to enter into an actual War against the French King, and for prohibiting several French Commodities".[1]
The Whig MP William Harbord in a speech claimed that "the French abstract one million yearly from us in trade" and that while this went on the French would govern English counsels. The solution was to "make a law to prohibit French trade: you need no wine and few of his commodities; and France will grow poor, and we shall grow rich".[2] Therefore, a Bill was introduced by another Whig MP William Sacheverell embodying these protectionist proposals. The beginning of the Act read:
And forasmuch as it hath beene by long Experience found that the Importing of French Wines Brandy Linnen Silke Salt and Paper and other Commodities of the Growth Product or Manufacture of the Territories and Dominions of the French King, hath much exhausted the Treasure of this Nation, lessened the Value of the Native Commodities and Manufactures thereof and caused great detriment to this Kingdome in generall Bee it further enacted by the Authoritie aforesaid That from and after the Twentyeth of March One thousand six hundred seaventy seaven Noe French Wine Vinegar Brandy Linnen Cloath Silks Salt. Paper or any Manufactures made of or mixed with Silke Threade Woole Haire Gold or Silver or Leather being of the Growth Product or Manufacture of any the Dominions or Territories of the French King shall dureing the terme of three yeares to be accounted from the said Twentyeth day of March or before the end of the first Session of Parlyament next after the expiration of the said Three yeares be brought in by Land or shall be imported in any Shipp or Shipps Vessell or Vessells [whatsoever] into any Port Heaven Creeke or other place [whatsoever] of the Kingdome of England Dominion of Wales or Towne of Berwicke upon Tweede or Isles of Jersey Guernsey Alderny Sarke or Isle of Man from any [Place or Port] whatever either mixt or unmixt with any Commodity of the Growth or Product of any other Nation Place or Country whatsoever.[3]
In his Speech from the Throne opening the parliamentary session of 1679, King Charles II lamented "the loss I sustain by the prohibition of French Wines and Brandy, which turns only to my prejudice, and to the great advantage of the French".[4]
In the opinion of the economic historian William Ashley, the Act was the "real starting-point in the history of Whig policy in the matter of trade".[5] It was regarded by writers in the eighteenth century as a turning point in the economic history of England but by the nineteenth century had been forgotten.[6]
The Act was intended to expire in three years' time but as Parliament was not sitting it remained on the statute book. Upon the accession of James II a new Parliament was elected that was strongly Tory and therefore the Act was repealed by the Importation Act 1685 (1 Ja. 2. c. 6).[7] However the Whigs criticised its repeal, with one Whig writer lamenting that "an inundation of French commodities to the value of above four millions sterling, within the compass of less than three years, whereby all the evils formerly complained of were renewed, insomuch that the nation would have bee soon beggared, had it not been for the happy revolution in the year 1688, when all commerce with France was effectually barred" by the Trade with France Act 1688.[8]
The Whigs were a political party in the Parliaments of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and the 1850s, the Whigs contested power with their rivals, the Tories. The Whigs became the Liberal Party when it merged with the Peelites and Radicals in the 1850s. Many Whigs left the Liberal Party in 1886 over the issue of Irish Home Rule to form the Liberal Unionist Party, which merged into the Conservative Party in 1912.
The Navigation Acts, or more broadly the Acts of Trade and Navigation, were a long series of English laws that developed, promoted, and regulated English ships, shipping, trade, and commerce with other countries and with its own colonies. The laws also regulated England's fisheries and restricted foreign—including Scottish and Irish—participation in its colonial trade. While based on earlier precedents, they were first enacted in 1651 under the Commonwealth.
The Oath of Supremacy required any person taking public or church office in the Kingdom of England, or in its subordinate Kingdom of Ireland, to swear allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church. Failure to do so was to be treated as treasonable. The Oath of Supremacy was originally imposed by King Henry VIII of England through the Act of Supremacy 1534, but repealed by his elder daughter, Queen Mary I of England, and reinstated under Henry's other daughter and Mary's half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I of England, under the Act of Supremacy 1558. The Oath was later extended to include Members of Parliament (MPs) and people studying at universities. In 1537, the Irish Supremacy Act was passed by the Parliament of Ireland, establishing Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church of Ireland. As in England, a commensurate Oath of Supremacy was required for admission to offices.
The Exclusion Crisis ran from 1679 until 1681 in the reign of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. Three Exclusion Bills sought to exclude the King's brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, from the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland because he was a Roman Catholic. None became law. Two new parties formed. The Tories were opposed to this exclusion, while the "Country Party", who were soon to be called the Whigs, supported it. While the matter of James's exclusion was not decided in Parliament during Charles's reign, it would come to a head only three years after James took the throne, when he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Finally, the Act of Settlement 1701 decided definitively that Roman Catholics were to be excluded from the English, Scottish, and Irish thrones, later the British throne.
The Statute of Monopolies was an act of the Parliament of England notable as the first statutory expression of English patent law. Patents evolved from letters patent, issued by the monarch to grant monopolies over particular industries to skilled individuals with new techniques. Originally intended to strengthen England's economy by making it self-sufficient and promoting new industries, the system gradually became seen as a way to raise money without having to incur the public unpopularity of a tax. Elizabeth I particularly used the system extensively, issuing patents for common commodities such as starch and salt. Unrest eventually persuaded her to turn the administration of patents over to the common law courts, but her successor, James I, used it even more. Despite a committee established to investigate grievances and excesses, Parliament made several efforts to further curtail the monarch's power. The result was the Statute of Monopolies, passed on 29 May 1624.
The Barbados Slave Code of 1661, officially titled as An Act for the better ordering and governing of Negroes, was a law passed by the Parliament of Barbados to provide a legal basis for slavery in the English colony of Barbados. It is the first comprehensive Slave Act, and the code's preamble, which stated that the law's purpose was to "protect them [slaves] as we do men's other goods and Chattels", established that black slaves would be treated as chattel property in the island's court.
The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English trading company established in 1660 by the House of Stuart and City of London merchants to trade along the West African coast. It was overseen by the Duke of York, the brother of Charles II of England; the RAC was founded after Charles II ascended to the English throne in the 1660 Stuart Restoration, and he granted it a monopoly on all English trade with Africa. While the company's original purpose was to trade for gold in the Gambia River, as Prince Rupert of the Rhine had identified gold deposits in the region during the Interregnum, the RAC quickly began trading in slaves, which became its largest commodity.
The First Charter of Virginia, also known as the Charter of 1606, is a document from King James I of England to the Virginia Company assigning land rights to colonists for the creation of a settlement which could be used as a base to export commodities to Great Britain and create a buffer preventing total Spanish control of the North and South American coasts. The land is described as coastal Virginia and the islands near to the coast, and stretches from present-day South Carolina to present-day Maine. The patch of land itself would remain the property of the King, with the London Company and the Plymouth Company as the King's tenants, and the settlers as subtenants. The colony's government at first consisted of a council residing in London. The document designated the London Company as responsible for financing the project, which included recruiting settlers and also provided for their transport and supplies.
The Oath of Allegiance is a promise to be loyal to the British monarch, and their heirs and successors, sworn by certain public servants in the United Kingdom, and also by newly naturalised subjects in citizenship ceremonies. The current standard wording of the oath of allegiance is set out in the Promissory Oaths Act 1868.
A religious test is a legal requirement to swear faith to a specific religion or sect, or to renounce the same.
The Declaration of Right, or Declaration of Rights, is a document produced by the English Parliament, following the 1688 Glorious Revolution. It sets out the wrongs committed by the exiled James II, the rights of English citizens, and the obligation of their monarch.
The Molasses Act 1733 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain that imposed a tax of six pence per gallon on imports of molasses from non-British colonies. Parliament created the act largely at the insistence of large plantation owners in the British West Indies. The Act was passed not to raise revenue but to regulate trade by making British products cheaper than those from the French West Indies. The Act greatly affected the significant colonial molasses trade.
The Crown and Parliament Recognition Act 1689 was an Act of the Parliament of England, passed in April 1690 but backdated to the start of the parliamentary session, which started on 20 March 1690. It was designed to confirm the succession to the throne of King William III and Queen Mary II of England and to confirm the validity of the laws passed by the Convention Parliament which had been irregularly convened following the Glorious Revolution and the end of James II's reign.
James II and VII was King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685, until he was deposed in the 1688 Glorious Revolution. The last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland, and Ireland, his reign is now remembered primarily for conflicts over religion. However, it also involved struggles over the principles of absolutism and divine right of kings, with his deposition ending a century of political and civil strife by confirming the primacy of the English Parliament over the Crown.
The Convention Parliament of England followed the Long Parliament that had finally voted for its own dissolution on 16 March that year. Elected as a "free parliament", i.e. with no oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth or to the monarchy, it was predominantly Royalist in its membership. It assembled for the first time on 25 April 1660.
The Accession Declaration Act 1910 is an Act which was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to alter the declaration that the Sovereign is required to make at their accession to the throne as first required by the Bill of Rights 1689. In it, they solemnly declare themself to be faithful to the Protestant faith. The altered declaration is as follows:
"I [here insert the name of the Sovereign] do solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God profess, testify, and declare that I am a faithful Protestant, and that I will, according to the true intent of the enactments which secure the Protestant succession to the Throne of my Realm, uphold and maintain the said enactments to the best of my powers according to law."
The Treasons Act 1649 or Act declaring what offences shall be adjudged Treason was passed on 17 July 1649 by the Rump Parliament during the Commonwealth of England. It superseded the Act declaring what offences shall be adjudged Treason passed about two months earlier on 14 May 1649.
The Treaty Between Great Britain and Lagos, 1 January 1852 was an agreement between Great Britain and Oba Akitoye, the newly installed Oba of Lagos. The treaty was signed following British victory during the Reduction of Lagos.
An Act for prohibiting Trade with the Barbadoes, Virginia, Bermuda and Antego or Act prohibiting Commerce and Trade with the Barbodoes, Antigo, Virginia, and Bermudas alias Summer's Islands was an Act of law passed by the Rump Parliament of England during the Interregnum against English colonies which sided with the Crown in the English Civil War.
The Articles of Capitulation on the Reduction of New Netherland was a document of surrender signed on September 29, 1664 handing control of the Dutch Republic's colonial province New Netherland to the Kingdom of England.
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