Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Note on dating, spelling and abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Institutions and oligarchy I: the municipal and business élites
- 2 Institutions and oligarchy II: gilds and companies
- 3 Big business and politics under James I
- 4 Big business and politics under Charles I
- 5 The crown and the municipality: local issues
- 6 The municipality and national issues
- 7 Conclusion
- Sources and bibliography
- Index
3 - Big business and politics under James I
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Note on dating, spelling and abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Institutions and oligarchy I: the municipal and business élites
- 2 Institutions and oligarchy II: gilds and companies
- 3 Big business and politics under James I
- 4 Big business and politics under Charles I
- 5 The crown and the municipality: local issues
- 6 The municipality and national issues
- 7 Conclusion
- Sources and bibliography
- Index
Summary
It was a central theme of the first chapter of this book that concessionaires of one sort or another formed a significant part of the business élite of London. During the last two parliaments of Elizabeth's reign one type of concessionaire, holders of internal patents of monopoly, had been the object of bitter attacks, and, as the debate on monopolies in 1601 had made abundantly clear, monopolies raised issues which transcended considerations of economics. For, as Francis Bacon put it in a speech which was to become justly celebrated, the question of monopolies was intimately bound up with that of the royal prerogative.
The Queen, as She is our Sovereign, hath both an Inlarging and Restraining Liberty of Her Prerogative; that is, She hath Power by Her Patents, to set at liberty Things restrained by Statute-Law, or otherwise: And by Her Prerogative, She may restrain Things that are at Liberty.
The debate on monopolies in 1601 thus highlighted the fact that concessionaires of the crown had everything to gain from the maintenance of the royal prerogative intact, and everything to fear from determined parliamentary assaults upon it. And this attitude was common to a much wider variety of concessionaires than the actual patentees who came under attack in 1601 and the business men to whom they sublet their concessions.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The City and the Court 1603-1643 , pp. 83 - 120Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1979
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