Ship money refers to a tax that Charles I of England tried to levy without the consent of Parliament. This tax, which was applied only to coastal towns during a time of war, was intended to offset the cost of defending that part of the coast, and could be paid in actual ships or the equivalent value. The collection of the tax inland during peacetime started in 1634 and provoked increasing resistance by 1636. This conflict was one of the causes of the English Civil War.
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Famous quotes containing the words ship and/or money:
“It is said that a carpenter building a summer hotel here ... declared that one very clear day he picked out a ship coming into Portland Harbor and could distinctly see that its cargo was West Indian rum. A county historian avers that it was probably an optical delusion, the result of looking so often through a glass in common use in those days.”
—For the State of New Hampshire, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“What is there that money will not do?”
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