Parliament declares monopolies illegal

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Domains

Economics, Commerce & Industry

Dates

Date of occurrence 1624

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Whilst it was already recognised that monopolies could legitimately be used to protect a nascent industry, and to raise standards of production and delivery, it was also appreciated that they could be abused to enable the wealthy to line their own pockets. The Stuart King James, in particular, made use of the power to grant monopolies to raise his personal revenues and gratify the pecuniary interests of his supporters. In response, by the Statue of Monopolies (21 Jac. 1, c.3) Parliament ruled that monopolies were “opposed to the fundemental laws of ... this realm”. This curtailing of monarchical rights was among the eventual causes of the English Civil War.

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

119 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Parliament declares monopolies illegal". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 January 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=820, accessed 05 May 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here