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Collected Money From: Resistance to the levy was met by further decrees, extending the tax to the whole kingdom, and directing that every landholder and other inhabitant be assessed according to his means, and the tax collected money from by distress if necessary. When John Hampden refused to pay.the tax, and was brought to trial, the judges decided, eight to four, in favor of the crown. One of the early acts of the Long Parliament in 1640 was to declare the ship-money tax illegal and no attempt has since been made to collect ship money in England.
Resistance. In 1637, John Hampden (q.v.) refused to pay his ship money. By a narrow majority the judges decided that the tax was legal. There was no constitutional remedy. In 1638, English taxpayers went on strike. In that year the government collected money from only 39% of its ship money levy compared with 89% in 1637. An army, painfully recruited, marched northward; it proved undisciplined, mutinous, and most unwilling to fight. It could not stop the Scots from invading England.
GRESHAM'S LAW, gresh'amz, in economics, is usually stated as "bad money drives out good." The law stems from the fact that money has a value both as money and as a commodity in the open market. The former value is set arbitrarily by law and is relatively fixed; the latter is determined by supply and demand and varies from time to time, "Good money" has a higher value as a commodity than as money and will disappear from circulation.
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