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Elizabeth’s money problems.
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Money was one of Elizabeth’s greatest problems. She had to sell ‘monopolies’. These gave very special trading rights to the merchants if they paid huge amounts of money to the queen. Merchants with monopolies put prices up to get more money. The people were furious. It seemed as if the queen was taxing them without parliament arrangement.
Elizabeth needed parliament to raise taxes for the war against Spain. Parliament usually granted the taxes but it hated monopolies. Everyone knew the Queen had the write to sell monopolies and that she needed the money, but it did not seem fair. People were angry at high prices and high taxes. Elizabeth was risking her popularity. She seemed to be giving up many monopolies. She seemed to be giving in to the MP’s. However, she kept their respect by making a special speech to Parliament.