TONNAGE (more properly TUNNAGE) AND POUNDAGE, certain duties on wine and other merchandise, which began to be levied in England in the reign of Edward III. They were at first granted to the crown by the vote of parliament for a limited number of years, and renewed on their expiry. The object of these imposts was said to be that the king might have ready money in case of a sudden emergency demanding it for the defense of the realm and the guarding of the sea. Originally fluctuating in amount, tonnage and poundage came to be fixed at 3s. on every tun of wine, and 5 per cent on all goods imported. In the reign of Henry V. they were first conferred on the king for life; and the same course being followed with his successors, the sovereign began gradu ally to consider them as his proper right and inheritance, and the vote of parliament as but a formality expressive of the popular recognition of his prerogative. Though these duties were not voted to Henry VIII. until the sixth year of his reign, he, notwith standing, levied them from the date of his accession; and parliament in voting them took occasion to blame those merchants who had neglected to make payment. It was, in fact, usual to levy these duties during the period intervening between a sovereign's accession and his first parliament, and this was done by Charles I. as by his prede
cessors. The commons, however, in Charles's first parliament accorded these imposts not for life, but for a year only; and the house of lords objecting to this departure from previous usages, and rejecting the bill, tonnage and poundage were attempted to be levied by the royal authority alone, a proceeding which raised the opposition of the commons. Charles was, in 1629, induced to pass an act renouncing the power of levy ing these or any other imposts without parliamentary sanction. On the restoration, Charles II. obtained a grant of tonnage and poundage for life; and the same course was followed on the accession of James IL and 61 William III. ; but by three several statutes of Anne and George I. (9 Anne, c. 6; 1 Geo. I. c. 12, and 3 Geo. I. c. 7) these imposts were made perpetual and mortgaged for the public debt. The customs consolidation act, introduced by Mr. Pitt in 1787, 27 Geo. III. c. 13, swept away tonnage and pound age, and all the other then existing changes, and substituted a new and single duty on each article. See CUSTOMS Dorms.