At the same time he made sure that no charges of over-taxing his people could be brought against him- a sure way to encourage rebellion. In the first twelve years of his reign, he called only six Parliaments: by the end of that period he had laid a solid financial foundation of government and enacted the main body of his legislation. In the second twelve years, he called only one Parliament. So well did the King exploit his sources of revenue, making the most of every asset, that he had no need to trouble the Lords and the Commons.
It was in the financial sphere that Henry's genius was most apparent. This is not say that he was an innovator: the Yorkist kings had shown themselves adept at financial administration: but Henry VII so refined their procedures of revenue collection and the apportioning of money to government needs that, by his personal supervision, he made the Crown solvent for the first time in many years and, at his death, left an immense reserve to his heir.
Apart from the taxes voted by Parliament, Henry induced the Commons to enact the return to the Crown of most of the royal lands which had been alienated since 1455, by the ingenious device of having Parliament declare that he had been king on the day before Bosworth, he turned into traitors all those who had fought against him - and was thus able to claim their estates as forfeit for treason. By this extension of Crown lands, and by their efficient administration, Henry increased their value, by the end of the reign, to some £35,000 per annum. Added to this, Henry had persuaded his first Parliament to grant him customs revenue for the whole of his life: by encouraging trade through international diplomacy, he increased customs yield: by farming out his dues he ensured maximum efficiency of collection and ensured the highest feasible income; he was receiving almost £40,000 per annum by the end of the reign Through improving the efficiency of his courts, the King could also rely on an income from "the profits of justice", i.e. from fines. And of course he had the age-dates "feudal dues" of medieval kingship, from the nobility, though it was only in the second half of the reign that he came to rely on the unscrupulous ingenuity of Morton, Empson and Dudley, his hatred collectors, for the increased fruits of that traditional revenue.
Though the King had recurrently to resort to Parliament to pay for his wars, this was considered a reasonable expense (except by the Cornishmen who revolted at being made to pay for war far away on the Scottish borders). However, he never thought it necessary to reimburse his people with the money which remained to him when he made peace-and he liked to make his price for peace a large sum of money from his former enemies.
Just as Henry made no real innovations in his financial policy, so there was a marked degree of continuity in his methods of administration. Indeed, the very personnel of his Council and departments of state were mainly "old hands" from previous reigns. Previous monarchs had always striven to keep a balance in the Council between the nobility and the professional civil servants: it was only in periods of royal weakness that the magnates had a played a predominant part in government. So the theory that Henry VII was the first king to use "new men" in his movement is not true; but it is true that he relied to a greater extent on the abilities and intellect of such "new men" as Cardinal Morton and Bishop Fox of Winchester with much success. His was truly a government "of the talents", though the great nobles also played their part and could complain no exclusion from their traditional role. It was to Henry's advantage that the Wars of the Roses had reduced the numbers of his nobility, weeding out men who had earlier been so "over mighty" in their dealings with the Crown. But he took no chances. With his usual forethought, Henry restrained his nobles' old tendencies to collect private armies in 1487 he enacted a law against "livery and maintenance" and in 1504 codified existing statutes against "retaining", to prevent the nobles keeping independent forces. But his main achievement in this sphere was in his successful enforcement of these laws, accomplished largely through the vigilance of his increasingly valuable Justices of the Peace. central government.
