Tonnage and poundage to be one of the complaints of his Long Parliament. The refusal of and subsequent disputes about tonnage and poundage rights is seen as one of the many events bearing responsibility for the English Civil War. Tonnage and poundage Tonnage and Poundage were certain duties and taxes first levied in Edward II's reign on every tun (cask) of imported wine, which came mostly from Spain and Portugal, and on every pound weight of merchandise exported or imported. Traditionally tonnage and poundage was granted by Parliament to the king for life until the reign of Charles I. Tonnage and poundage were
Net tonnage Net tonnage Net tonnage (often abbreviated as NT, N.T. or nt) is a dimensionless index calculated from the total moulded volume of the ship's cargo spaces by using a mathematical formula. Defined in "The International Convention on Tonnage Measurement of Ships" that was adopted by the International Maritime Organization in 1969, the net tonnage replaced the earlier net register tonnage (NRT) which denoted the volume of the ship's revenue-earning spaces in "register tons", units of volume equal to . Net tonnage is used to calculate the port duties and should not be taken as less than 30 per cent of