Somerset on Trial

Somerset on Trial: Personality and Politics Somerset on Trial: Foreign Policy Somerset on Trial: Economy and Finance Somerset on Trial: Religion Somerset on Trial: The uprisings of 1549	Somerset on Trial
	Y^e Prosecution, led by y^e Duke of Northumberland: Economy - you wouldn't know the meaning of the word.	Ye Defence, speaking for himself:
		I disagree. I tried to tackle the perennial problem of enclosure. I appointed John 'Clubfoot' Hales to sort it. Good man, y'know. Not his fault he failed. Although we did get his wool-cloth taxes passed.
	Yes, well they were hardly popular, were they? And his commissions to inspect enclosures only encouraged the rioting of the summer of 1549.
		That merely shows what a problem enclosing was.
	You didn't deal with the problem of debasement, even when your friend Sir Thomas Smith said you should restore the coinage.
		Tom was talking in ideal terms. I couldn't do that - not with a war to pay for. Hell's teeth, I even had to sell some crown lands and - most galling - the new revenue got from the dissolution of the chantries following our 1547 Act.
	We'll leave the war for another conversation. Still, the sheep tax you mentioned might have raised cash for troops, but it also raised people's tempers.
		I'd like to see you do better...