The role of trade monopolies in the opposition between the crown and the parliament under queen Elizabeth I Tudor

The relevance of the research is determined by the problem of monopolism in modern economy. It has great theoretical and practical significance because in the realization of their economic interests monopolistic associations usually hinder the development of market relations as such and produce crisis. In this respect it is expedient to turn to the historical past and parse an example of how this problem was solved then. The aim of this article is to investigate the principal problem of England's social and economic development in the second part of the XVI century, which was a struggle in the Parliament around trade monopolies and patent policy of the Crown. It was established that causa proxima that forced the Parliament's decision to introduce a monopoly question for debate was numerous abuses of patents' owners. It caused numerous complaints of those merchants who could not obtain a certain patent for some reasons. The debates about the harm of monopolies lasted from 1597 up to 1601, when the House of Commons considered the antimonopoly bill, and Queen Elizabeth I ordained the proclamation in which she renounced her right to give new monopolies in a future. It is demonstrated that as a result the parliament did not go as far as to infringe the Crown's prerogative to give merchants patents and did not pass the relevant bill. The status of the existing monopolies remained unchanged.