The Estates General, when they gave counsel, had in theory only a consultative faculty. They had the power of granting subsidies, which was the chief and ordinary cause of their convocation. But it had come to be a consent with which the king could dispense, as permanent taxation became established. In the 16th century, however, the estates again claimed that their consent was necessary for the establishment of new taxation, and, on the whole, the facts seemed to be in favour of this view at the time. However, in the course of the 17th century the principle gained recognition that the king could tax on his own sole authority. Thus were established in the second half of the 17th century, and in the 18th, the direct taxes of the "capitation" and of the "dixième" or "vingtième", and many indirect taxes. It was sufficient for the law creating them to be registered by the "cours des aides" and the "parlements". It was only in 1787 that the "parlement" of Paris declared that it could not register the new taxes, the land-tax and stamp duty ("subvention territoriale" and "impôt du timbre"), as they did not know whether they would be submitted to by the country, and that the consent of the representatives of the tax-payers must be asked.