The Protectorate Excise, 1654–1659

As the great Cromwellian scholar Maurice Ashley observed almost eighty years ago, Oliver Cromwell had an essentially Elizabethan vision of government finance (Ashley, 1934, pp. 1–3). Cromwell abhorred reliance upon established London financial interests. In re-establishing the ancient Exchequer in 1654, he adopted none of the innovations of parliamentary finance. His animosity towards groups who had previously lent funds to the Commonwealth narrowed his regime’s financial base, even as the Protectorate’s other reformist projects bore fruit. As a consequence, Cromwell became dependent instead upon syndicates of farmers, who were willing to make advances to the regime in exchange for direct control of the revenue stream. Meanwhile, the Protectorate Parliaments fought Cromwell’s extensions of executive power by disabling the excise officers from imposing punitive measures without the cooperation of the local JPs. This re-played in a minor key the conflict that had brought England to civil war in 1641. By the end of Cromwell’s reign, most of the Protectorate excise farms had failed. These bankruptcies contributed to the financial difficulties faced by Richard Cromwell after his father’s death.