It was then distributed among the counties in proportion to their supposed wealth, and was levied within each county by a rate.

The revenue derived from these assessments in the time of the Commonwealth varied from thirty-five thousand pounds to a hundred and twenty thousand pounds a month.
After the Restoration the legislature seemed for a time inclined to revert, in finance as in other things, to the ancient practice.
Subsidies were once or twice granted to Charles the Second.

But it soon appeared that the old system was much less convenient than the new system.

The Cavaliers condescended to take a lesson in the art of taxation from the Roundheads; and, during the interval between the Restoration and the Revolution, extraordinary calls were occasionally met by assessments resembling the assessments of the Commonwealth.

After the Revolution, the war with France made it necessary to have recourse annually to this abundant source of revenue.