The Restoration Customs and Excise administration inherited a much older fiscal system. Tonnage and poundage had supported English government since the late medieval period and were normally granted to a monarch for life. James I added charges beyond those customary revenues, and Parliament withheld the traditional lifetime grant from Charles I while those grievances remained unresolved. The interregnum changed the name and political master of the collection machinery without erasing its institutional experience. Reconstituting it as His Majesty's Customs and Excise therefore combined administrative continuity with restored royal authority.
Chapter · 58:22-1:04:48
From tonnage and poundage to Customs and Excise
The Customs Acts formalized a revenue service built on medieval tonnage and poundage, whose disputed use had already helped estrange Parliament from Charles I.