The Importation Act 1667 was an
Act of the
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised t ...
(citation 19 & 20 Cha. II c. 12) which banned
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...
from being sold in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It was repealed by the
Statute Law Revision Act 1863
The Statute Law Revision Act 1863 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was intended, in particular, to facilitate the preparation of a revised edition of the statutes.
The enactments which were repealed (whether for the whol ...
.
The Bill was first introduced in 1663 and proved extremely contentious. It was the work of
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 20th Baron de Ros, (30 January 1628 – 16 April 1687) was an English statesman and poet.
Life
Early life
George was the son of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, favourite of James I ...
, who saw it as a means to injure his enemies
James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde
Lieutenant-General James FitzThomas Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, KG, PC (19 October 1610 – 21 July 1688), was a statesman and soldier, known as Earl of Ormond from 1634 to 1642 and Marquess of Ormond from 1642 to 1661. Following the failur ...
and
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (18 February 16099 December 1674), was an English statesman, lawyer, diplomat and historian who served as chief advisor to Charles I during the First English Civil War, and Lord Chancellor to Charles II from ...
. Ormonde,
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdo ...
, believed that it would prevent any proper economic development in Ireland, while Clarendon, though he was not greatly interested in Irish affairs, promised Ormonde, his close friend and ally in Government, to use his authority to see it defeated. Its passage would therefore greatly weaken them politically, and correspondingly strengthen Buckingham.
Buckingham said that "whoever was against the Bill had either an Irish interest or an Irish understanding", giving great offence to Ormonde and his family as a result, but his difficulty was that England did not have a single "interest". The Bill was strongly supported by those whom
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...
called "the Western gentlemen", the landed gentlemen of the North and West of England, and
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
, who believed that the Bill would increase the value of their cattle. It was opposed by the graziers of
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
and
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
, who made their living partly by fattening Irish cattle, and by Londoners, who were the biggest market for Irish beef. Pepys also reports fears, unfounded in the event, that passing the Bill would lead to a repetition of the
Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1641) was an uprising by Irish Catholics in the Kingdom of Ireland, who wanted an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and to partially or fully reverse the plantatio ...
.
In September 1666, against Government opposition, the Bill was reintroduced in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
. Pepys thought that this was "against the general sense of the House" but that the "Western gentlemen" might carry it by a small majority. Clarendon until too late was confident that the two Houses would reject it or that if all else failed
the King would veto it; but preoccupied as he was with the
Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Second Anglo-Dutch War or the Second Dutch War (4 March 1665 – 31 July 1667; nl, Tweede Engelse Oorlog "Second English War") was a conflict between Kingdom of England, England and the Dutch Republic partly for control over the seas a ...
, he seriously underestimated his opponents. Sir
William Coventry
Sir William Coventry (4th October 162723 June 1686) was an English statesman.
Early life and Civil War
William was the son of the lord keeper Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, by his second wife Elizabeth Aldersley. Coventry matriculated a ...
, more realistically, warned Ormonde that in his view it would pass the Commons, that the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
would make no difficulty, and that the King, embroiled with domestic problems and the Dutch war, would not risk offending Parliament by using his
veto
A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president or monarch vetoes a bill to stop it from becoming law. In many countries, veto powers are established in the country's constitution. Veto ...
. Coventry's predictions were correct: although the King gave his assent with great reluctance, he was acting on Parliament's unofficial pledge to pass two crucial financial Bills on condition that the Importation Bill become law, as it duly did in January 1667. The King's "very sharp speech" to the Lords on 18 January, which Pepys mentions in his Diary, is an indication of his displeasure at having to assent to the Act.
References
*''Scottish Society, 1707-1830: Beyond Jacobitism, Towards Industrialisation'', Christopher A Whatley, Manchester University Press
*'Charles II, 1667 & 1668: An Additional Act against the Importation of Forreign Cattel', Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: 1628-80 (1819), pp. 641-42. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=47407 Date accessed: 6 March 2007.
*''The Diary of Samuel Pepys'', R.C. Latham and W. Matthews editors, Volumes VII and VIII.
*Ollard, Richard ''Clarendon and his Friends'' Macmillans 1987
{{UK legislation
1667 in law
1667 in England
Acts of the Parliament of England