''Bates's Case'' or the ''Case of Impositions'' (1606) 2 St Tr 371 is a
UK constitutional law
The United Kingdom constitutional law concerns the governance of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. With the oldest continuous political system on Earth, the British constitution is not contained in a single code but princ ...
case of the
Court of the Exchequer, which enabled the King to impose duties for trade.
Facts
John Bates was a merchant of the
Levant Company
The Levant Company was an English chartered company formed in 1592. Elizabeth I of England approved its initial charter on 11 September 1592 when the Venice Company (1583) and the Turkey Company (1581) merged, because their charters had expired, ...
. He refused to pay the
import duty
A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and polic ...
on
currants imposed by
James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
*James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
*James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
*James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
, claiming that this imposition was illegal unless approved by Parliament. The matter was taken to the Court of the Exchequer.
Judgement
The Court of the Exchequer held that Bates had to pay the duty. The Crown could impose the duty as it pleased to regulate trade. The Court could not go behind the King’s statement that the duty was indeed imposed for the purpose of regulating trade.
It followed that
the Crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
could impose a duty on imported currants if this was done to regulate foreign trade, and not simply to raise revenue.
Significance
The case had the effect that such impositions were extended, giving the
Treasury
A treasury is either
*A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry.
*A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...
a "windfall".
Robert Cecil realised that this judgement could provide extra income for the Crown.
In the long run, if the Crown could levy taxes without resorting to Parliament, one of the main reasons for that body's existence might disappear, thus perhaps allowing the King to dispense with Parliaments altogether, although this did not really become apparent until the reign of
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
.
Sir Richard Lane's ''Reports in the court of exchequer'', published posthumously in 1657, contained an important report of
Sir Thomas Fleming's opinion in this case.
[D. A. Orr, 'Lane, Sir Richard (bap. 1584, d. 1650)', in '']Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'', Oxford University Press, 2004;
online edition
(subscription required), accessed 27 January 2011
Chief Baron Fleming, who came from a family of merchants, displayed a notable contempt for the business community in his opinion. To the argument that the common good requires merchants to have unrestricted access to foreign markets, he made the scathing reply that "the end of every private merchant is not the common good but his particular profit".
See also
*
UK constitutional law
The United Kingdom constitutional law concerns the governance of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. With the oldest continuous political system on Earth, the British constitution is not contained in a single code but princ ...
*
International trade law
International trade law includes the appropriate rules and customs for handling trade between countries. However, it is also used in legal writings as trade between private sectors. This branch of law is now an independent field of study as mo ...
Notes
Sources
* {{Cite EB1911, wstitle= Bates, John , volume= 3 , last=Phillips, first=Walter Alison , author-link=Walter Alison Phillips, pages = 509–510 , short= 1
Economic history of England
1606 in law
Levant Company
Exchequer of Pleas cases
1606 in English law
United Kingdom constitutional case law