On the 31st of December 1697, the public debts of Great Britain, funded and unfunded, amounted to L21,515,742 13s.81/2d.A great part of those debts had been contracted upon short anticipations, and some part upon annuities for lives, so that before the 31st of December 1701, in less than four years, there had partly been paid off, and partly reverted to the public, the sum of L5,121,041 12s.0 3/4d.; a greater reduction of the public debt than has ever since been brought about in so short a period of time.The remaining debt, therefore, amounted only to L16,394,701 1s.7 1/4d.
In the war which began in 1709., and which was concluded by the Treaty of Utrecht, the public debts were still more accumulated.On the 31st of December 1714, they amounted to L53,681,076 5s.6 1/2d.The subscription into the South Sea fund of the short and long annuities increased the capital of the public debts, so that on the 31st of December 1722 it amounted to L55,282,978 1s.3 5/6d.The reduction of the debt began in 1723, and went on so slowly that, on the 31st of December 1739, during seventeen years of profound peace, the whole sum paid off was no more than L8,328,354 17s.11 3/12d., the capital of the public debt at that time amounting to L46,954,623 3s.4 7/12d.
The Spanish war, which began in 1739, and the French war which soon followed it occasioned further increase of the debt, which, on the 31st of December 1748, after the war had been concluded by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, amounted to L78,293,313 1s.10 3/4d.The most profound peace of seventeen years continuance had taken no more than L8,328,354 17s.113/12d.from it.A war of less than nine years' continuance added L31,338,689 18s.6 1/6d.to it.
During the administration of Mr.Pelham, the interest of the public debt was reduced, or at least measures were taken for reducing it, from four to three per cent; the sinking fund was increased, and some part of the public debt was paid off.In 1755, before the breaking out of the late war, the funded debt of Great Britain amounted to L72,289,673.On the 5th of January 1763, at the conclusion of the peace, the funded debt amounted to L122,603,336 8s.2 1/4d.The unfunded debt has been stated at L13,927,589 2s.2d.But the expense occasioned by the war did not end with the conclusion of the peace, so that though, on the 5th of January 1764, the funded debt was increased (partly by a new loan, and partly by funding a part of the unfunded debt) to L129,586,789 10s.1 3/4d., there still remained (according to the very well informed author of the Considerations on the Trade and Finances of Great Britain) an unfunded debt which was brought to account in that and the following year of L9,975,017 12s.215/44d.In 1764, therefore, the public debt of Great Britain, funded and unfunded together, amounted, according to this author, to L139,516,807 2s.4d.The annuities for lives, too, which had been granted as premiums to the subscribers to the new loans in 1757, estimated at fourteen years' purchase, were valued at L472,500; and the annuities for long terms of years, granted as premiums likewise in 1761 and 1762, estimated at twenty-seven and a half years' purchase, were valued at L6,826,875.During a peace of about seven years' continuance, the prudent and truly patriot administration of Mr.Pelham was not able to pay off an old debt of six millions.During a war of nearly the same continuance, a new debt of more than seventy-five millions was contracted.
On the 5th of January 1775, the funded debt of Great Britain amounted to L124,996,086 1s.6 1/4d.The unfunded, exclusive of a large civil list debt, to L4,150,263 3s.11 7/8d.Both together, to L129,146,322 5s.6d.According to this account the whole debt paid off during eleven years' profound peace amounted only to L10,415,474 16s.9 7/8d.Even this small reduction of debt, however, has not been all made from the savings out of the ordinary revenue of the state.Several extraneous sums, altogether independent of that ordinary revenue, have contributed towards it.Amongst these we may reckon an additional shilling in the pound land-tax for three years; the two millions received from the East India Company as indemnification for their territorial acquisitions; and the one hundred and ten thousand pounds received from the bank for the renewal of their charter.
To these must be added several other sums which, as they arose out of the late war, ought perhaps to be considered as deductions from the expenses of it.The principal are, L s.