1.
They were able on sudden emergencies to raise considerable supplies by loan
from the merchants of the city, who seldom dared to refuse, or, if they
did, were compelled to yield by menaces of distraint and imprisonment. For
all such advances interest was promised at the usual rate of eight per
cent., and "the public faith was pledged for the repayment of the capital."
2. When the parliament ordered their first levy of soldiers, many of their
partisans subscribed considerable sums in money, or plate, or arms, or
provisions. But it was soon asked, why the burthen should fall exclusively
on the well-affected; and the houses improved the hint to ordain that all
non-subscribers, both in the city and in the country, should be compelled
to contribute the twentieth part of their estates towards the support of
the common cause. 3. Still the wants of the army daily increased, and, as a
temporary resource, an order was made that each county should provide for
the subsistence of the men whom it had furnished; 4. and this was followed
by a more permanent expedient, a weekly assessment of ten thousand pounds
on the city of London, and of twenty-four thousand pounds on the rest of
the kingdom, to be levied by county-rates after the manner of subsidies.
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