¹ Cullen, L. M., ‘The value of contemporary printed sources for Irish economic history in the eighteenth century’, Irish Historical Studies, xiv, 54 (1964), 147.Google Scholar

² Cullen, L. M., Anglo-Irish trade 1660–1800 (Manchester, 1968), p. 229.Google Scholar

³ Hall, F. G., History of the Bank of Ireland (Dublin, 1949), p. 21Google Scholar. This is the fullest account of the 1721 episode, but is unreliable. See particularly n. 11 below. Hone, J. M., ‘Berkeley and Swift as national economists’, Studies, xxiii, 91 (1934), 425.Google Scholar

⁴ Lawson, William John, The history of banking (London, 2nd edn, 1855), p. 350Google Scholar; Dillon, Malcolm, The history and development of banking in Ireland from the earliest times to the present day (London, 1889), p. 41.Google Scholar

⁵ King to Whitshed, 19 Oct. 1721, King correspondence, Trinity College, Dublin, MS 750/7, p. 13. I wish to thank the Board of Trinity College, Dublin, for permission to publish material from this collection.

⁶ Hall, , Bank of Ireland, p. 22.Google Scholar

⁷ Ibid. p. 34;Ferguson, O. W., Jonathan Swift and Ireland (Urbana, 111., 1962), pp. 60–75.Google Scholar

⁸ The wonderful wonder of wonders and The wonder of all the wonders that ever the world wondered at are both cited by Ferguson, Swift and Ireland, pp. 72–4 as attacks on the bank, but in both cases the proof rests on passages missing from any known Dublin edition of 1721. In addition, for the first of these pieces an explanation is available for the problem passage in terms entirely in accord with the blatant scatology of the pamphlet and without reference to the bank; see The wonderful wonder of wonders… With a preface and some few notes, explaining the most difficult passages (London, 1721). This seems more satisfactory than the rather elliptical proof required by Ferguson.Google Scholar

⁹ Hall, , Bank of Ireland, p. 16. Two other lists, both entitled ‘ A list of the Petitioners to his Majesty for a Charter to Erect a Bank in Ireland’, and differing slightly from each other, give a much greater number of people. For these see National Library of Ireland MS 2256, pp. 27–8 and 31–3. I wish to thank the Trustees of the National Library of Ireland for permission to use this material. Hall's list contains the most important figures, but for accurate names see p. 560 below.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Lawson, , History of banking, p. 349.Google Scholar

¹¹ Hall, Bank of Ireland, p. 16; this date seems to be based on a misunderstanding of the Old Style dating of a letter from the lords justices of Ireland to the duke of Grafton, 7 Jan. 1720, in which reference is made to a letter of Grafton's of the preceding 8 Sept. (See Journals of the house of commons of the kingdom of Ireland (Dublin, 1796), IIIGoogle Scholar, appendix, p. cci.) The year began not on 1 January but on Lady Day. As a result, Hall's chronology has become badly distorted throughout this section. In this article dates will be quoted Old Style with the year beginning on 25 March. Hall's error has been followed by Desmond Clarke, Arthur Dobbs esquire 1689–1765. Surveyor-general of Ireland. Prospector and governor of North Carolina (London, 1958), pp. 18–19; and Ferguson, Swift and Ireland, p. 64.Google Scholar

¹² King to Southwell, 17 Oct. 1721, King corr., 750/7, p. 49.

¹³ Nicolson to Wake, 21 Oct. 1721, B.L. Add. MS 6116, fo. 115.

¹⁴ Midleton papers, Guildford Muniment Room, MS 1248/5, fo. 125. I wish to thank Viscount Midleton and the Keeper of the Guildford muniment room for permission to use material from this collection.

¹⁵ A strange collection of may-be's fully answered and cleared up by a subscriber and well-wisher to the bank (Dublin, 1721), p. 2.Google Scholar

¹⁶ King to Southwell, 17 Oct. 1721, King corr., 750/7, p. 49.

¹⁷ This pamphlet is not in either Hanson, L. W., Contemporary printed sources for British and Irish economic history, 1701–1750 (Cambridge, 1963)Google Scholar, or Wagner, H. R., Irish economics: 1700–1783, a bibliography with notes (London, 1907). The only copy known to the present writer is N.L.I. MS 2256, pp. 59–61. The date of publication is uncertain, but from internal evidence must have been prior to May 1720.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Ferguson, , Swift and Ireland, p. 64Google Scholar. For the passage from Swift see Davis, Herbert, ed., The prose works of Jonathan Swift (Oxford, 1948), ix, 21–2. See also Lady Molesworth to her son, 17 May 1720, H.M.C. Report on various collections, viii, 287.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Irwin, , To the nobility, p. 3.Google Scholar

²⁰ Ibid. p. 2. N.L.I. MS 2256, pp. 39 and 41 are subscription lists to the value of approximately £500,000. They correlate better with the lists of petitioners (see n. 9 above) than with the final list of subscribers published in 1721 (for which see Hall, , Bank of Ireland, pp. 23–4), although imperfectly with both.Google Scholar

²¹ See the marginal corrections to Irwin's To the nobility in N.L.I. MS 2256, pp. 60–1. The date for this meeting is conjectural; the date of the election is not (see n. 22 below).

²² N.L.I. MS 2256, p. 35. The returning officers were Abercorn, Oliver St. George, James Topham, James Macartney, Charles Echlin, John Irwin, Thomas Gleadstanes, and James Stevenson; cf. Ibid. pp. 27–8, 31–3 and n. 9 above. Many of these were subsequently elected as directors on 20 Nov. 1721. (See Wagner, , Irish economics, p. 12.)Google Scholar

²³ This may have been the substance of a paper, prepared for the press, which Abercorn sent to William King on 18 May 1720. It seems to have been intended for the relief of South Sea investors, and King was desired to keep it secret for forty-eight hours lest it prove to be’ a fancifull Structure, upon a crazy Foundation’. King corr., MS 2005, fo. 1953r and v. The petition is printed in Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, appendix, p. cci, and in Hall, Bank of Ireland, p. 16. For the memorial see N.L.I. MS 2256, p. 8. The memorial printed in Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, appendix, p. cc, is of a later date (see n. 28 below).

²⁴ Lords justices to Grafton, 7 Jan. 1720, Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, appendix, p. cci. See also Percival et al. to Abercorn, 18 June 1720, N.L.I. MS 2256, p. 17.

²⁵ Abercorn et al. to Percival, 2 June 1720, N.L.I. MS 2256, pp. 8–9.

²⁶ Sir Ralph Gore to Webster, 2 June 1720, N.L.I. MS 2256, p. 9.

²⁷ Percival et al. to Abercorn, 18 June 1720, N.L.I. MS 2256, p. 17. This letter refers to ‘a fund’ which was ‘already subscribed’ for the bank. This can only refer to Irwin's proposal, as subscriptions under the royal commission did not commence until much later.

²⁸ Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, appendix, p. cc. This was transmitted to Grafton on 25 June 1720; see Ibid. p. cci, lords justices to Grafton, 7 Jan. 1720.

²⁹ Horatio Walpole to [James?] Belcher, 5 July 1720, letterbook of Philip Whichcote, pp. 4–5, Aswarby papers, Lincolnshire Archives Office. See also Eighteenth century Irish official papers in Great Britain. Private collations (Belfast, 1973), 1, 27. Grafton probably informed Abercorn by a letter of 28 June; see Grafton to Abercorn, 6 Aug. 1720, N.L.I. MS 2256, p. 21. I wish to thank the owner of the Aswarby papers, Mr N. G. W. Playne, and the Lincolnshire County Archivist for permission to use the item from that collection.Google Scholar

³⁰ Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, appendix, p. cc.

³¹ The petition is printed in Hall, , Bank of Ireland, p. 17. For the heads of a charter which they submitted with it see N.L.I. MS 2256, p. 12.Google Scholar

³² Grafton to Abercorn, 6 Aug. 1720, N.L.I. MS 2256, p. 21.

³³ See Hall, , Bank of Ireland, p. 17Google Scholar. For the petition see Midleton papers, 1248/8, fo. 117 (copy). Collins, Charles M., The history, law, and practice of banking (London, 1882), p. 88Google Scholar, refers to this offer as a bribe to the M.P.s, and this is repeated by Dillon, History and Development, p. 39. This is clearly mistaken. Even if it had been seen as a bribe, however, it was small by comparison with the £100,000 offered at this same time as an outright gift in exchange for incorporation of a fire insurance company by other petitioners. See Grafton to the lords justices of Ireland, 8 Sept. 1720, Midleton papers, 1248/8, fo. 119 (copy). Mason, William Monck, The history and antiquities of the collegiate and cathedral church of St. Patrick, near Dublin, from its foundation in 1190 to the year 1819 (Dublin, 1820), p. 325, refers to an offer of £50,000 for the service of the government from Abercorn in exchange for a charter. I can find no evidence for this: it does not seem to be a confusion with Forbes's offer, which is noted separately.Google Scholar

³⁴ Grafton to the lords justices of Ireland, 8 Sept. 1720, Midleton papers, 1248/8, fo. 119.

³⁵ See Busteed, John, ‘ Irish private banks’, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society (second series), LIII, 177 (1948), 32–8, where, however, the existence of Forbes's proposal is not alluded to.Google Scholar

³⁶ Lords justices of Ireland to Grafton, 7 Jan. 1720, Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, appendix, p. cci, and Hall, Bank of Ireland, p. 17.

³⁷ See Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, appendix, p. ccii.

³⁸ See Ward to Irwin, n.d., N.L.I. MS 2256, p. 15, where Ward says he has been attempting to contact William Webster; also Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, appendix, p. ccii. Grafton's report included a list of subscribers which may have been the same as the printed list in N.L.I. MS 2256, pp. 63 and 65. Comparison with the final list (see Hall, , Bank of Ireland, pp. 23–4) suggests that it is an early version of the same, although see also n. 55 below.Google Scholar

³⁹ An account of the short life, sudden death, and pompous funeral of Michy Windybank, Davis, ed., Prose works, ix, 308. Oliver Windybank (Michy's father) is evidently inspired by Oliver St. George. He went to England, the pamphlet says, ‘to have the Advice of the most eminent Physicians; to whom (as it is constandy affirmed) he gave no less in Fees than One Thousand Two Hundred Guineas…’.

⁴⁰ Ward to Irwin, 11 May 1721, Hall, , Bank of Ireland, p. 372.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Treasury papers, Public Record Office, T.1. 234, 27 May 1721.

⁴² Ibid., and Ward to Irwin, 30 May 1721, Hall, , Bank of Ireland, p. 373.Google Scholar

⁴³ Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, appendix, p. ccv; cf. Hall, , Bank of Ireland, p. 18, which gives 27 July.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Hutchinson, John Hely, The commercial restraints of Ireland considered (Dublin, 1779), p.41Google Scholar; Clarendon, R. V., A sketch of the revenue and finances of Ireland (London, 1791), p. 95.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Clarke, , Arthur Dobbs, p. 19.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ James, F. G., Ireland in the empire 1688–1770: a history of Ireland from the Williamite wars to the eve of the American revolution (Cambridge, Mass. 1973), p. 112.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, 247, 256.

⁴⁸ Nicolson to Wake, 25 Sept. 1721, B.L. Add. MS 6116, fo. 112.

⁴⁹ Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, 256. Hall, , Bank of Ireland, pp. 19–20, puts this vote on 29 Sept. on a protest against the committee's report. No such protest is recorded.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, 257–8, 262.

⁵¹ Nicolson to Wake, 14 and 21 Oct. 1721, B.L. Add. MS 6116, fos, 113V, 114–16.

⁵² Midleton to Thomas Brodrick, 14 Oct. 1721, Midleton papers, 1248/5, fo. 97; also King to Southwell, 17 Oct. 1721, King corr., 750/7, p. 51.

⁵³ Midleton to Thomas Brodrick, 5 Nov. 1721, Midleton papers, 1248/5, fo. 107.

⁵⁴ Nicolson to Wake, 14 Oct. 1721, B.L. Add. MS 6116, fo. 113V; 17 Oct. 1721, King corr., 750/7, p. 11; Midleton to Thomas Brodrick, 14 Oct. 1721, Midleton papers, 1248/5, fo. 97; 19 Oct. 1721. Southwell papers, B.L. Add. MS 34778, fo. 96; Bishop of Meath to Wake, Oct. 1721, Wake MSS, Christ Church, Oxford, xiii, fo. 291 v. I wish to acknowledge the kindness of the Librarian of Christ Church, on behalf of the Wake Trustees, for permission to use material from this collection.

⁵⁵ King to Townsend, 18 Nov. 1721, King corr., 750/7, p. 34.

⁵⁶ Nicolson to Wake, 28 Oct. and 21 Nov. 1721, B.L. Add. MS 6116, fos. 116 and 117v.For the enclosed printed list see Wake MSS xiii, fo. 298.

⁵⁷ King to Molesworth, 18 Nov. 1721, King corr., 750/7, p. 29.

⁵⁸ Midleton to Thomas Brodrick, 5 Nov. 1721, Midleton papers, 1248/5, fo. 108.

⁵⁹ Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, 283.

⁶⁰ Nicolson to Wake, 9 Nov. 1721, B.L. Add. MS 6116, fo. 117.

⁶¹ Midleton to Thomas Brodrick, 6 Nov. 1721, Midleton papers, 1248/5, fo. 109.

⁶² Journals of the house of lords (Dublin, 1780), II, 711–12.Google Scholar

⁶³ Midleton to Thomas Brodrick, 9 Nov. 1721, Midleton papers, 1248/5, fo. 129 V, and heads of a speech, fo. 115.

⁶⁴ Lords’ jn. Ire. ii, 713, 715.

⁶⁵ 2nd edn (Dublin, 1721), p. 49. See also n. 84 below.

⁶⁶ (Dublin, 1721), p. 23.

⁶⁷ Coxe, William, Memoirs of the life and administration of Sir Robert Walpole, earl 0f Orford (London, 1798), ii, 355.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Midleton to Thomas Brodrick, 14 Nov. 1721, Midleton papers, 1248/5, fo. 142 V.

⁶⁹ Same to same, 13 Sept. 1721, Ibid. fo. 83.

⁷⁰ Ibid. fo. 97 V.

⁷¹ Midleton to Thomas Brodrick, 17 Dec. 1721, Midleton apers, 1248/5, fo. 122 r and v.

⁷² Same to same, 9 Nov. 1721, Ibid. fo. 129V.

⁷³ Ibid. fo. 130.

⁷⁴ Same to same, ii Nov. 1721, Ibid. fo. 130V.

⁷⁵ Ibid. fo. 138.

⁷⁶ Grafton to Midleton, 13 Nov. 1721, Midleton papers, 1248/5, fo. 140; and Midleton to Thomas Brodrick, 17 Dec. 1721, Ibid. fo. 122 V.

⁷⁷ Midleton to Thomas Brodrick, 19 Nov. 1721, Ibid. fo. 146.

⁷⁸ Wagner, , Irish economics, p. 12.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Midleton papers, 1248/5, fo. 148 V.

⁸⁰ Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, 289.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, 304Google Scholar; and Hall, , Bank of Ireland, p. 20.Google Scholar

⁸² Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, 289.Google Scholar

⁸³ Lords’ jn. Ire. ii, 720.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ A letter to a member of parliament touching the late intended bank (Dublin, 1721), p.8Google Scholar. Note also p. 16, where the author makes clear, by quoting the suggested security of the bank as £800,000, that he is responding to Maxwell, Henry, Reasons offer’d for erecting a bank in Ireland; in a letter to Hercules Rowley (Dublin, 1721)Google Scholar. This was modified in Mr. Maxwell's second letter to Mr. Rowley; wherein the objections against the bank are answered (Dublin, 1721), to which his respondent does not refer. The pamphlet was most probably, therefore, written during the adjournment of parliament; see also p. 567 above.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Letter to a member of parliament, p. 11.

⁸⁶ Rowley, Answer to a book, p. 30. The expression ‘immortal in its Nature’ is taken by Rowley from Maxwell (see p. 573 below), where Maxwell is attempting to demonstrate the stability of the bank; but such a claim only compounded the fears of one whose conception of stability was the inheritance of land.

⁸⁷ E.g. Rowley, , Answer to a book, pp. 33–4Google Scholar; Rowley, , Answer to Mr. Maxwell, pp. 10–11Google Scholar; Hutchinson, Francis, A letter to the gentlemen of the landed interest in Ireland, relating to a bank (Dublin, 1721), P. 23.Google Scholar

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⁸⁹ Jonathan Swift, A letter from a lady in town to her friend in the country, concerning the bank, Davis, ed., Prose works, ix, 302.

⁹⁰ This rhetoric has great durability; cf. Rev. Nolan, Dom. P., ‘O’Connell and the banks’, The Catholic Bulletin, xix, 3(1929), 267–70 passim.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Rowley, Answer to a book, pp. 37–8. 92 Ibid. p. 38. The Act was 9 Anne, c. 5.

⁹³ A short view of the apparent dangers and mischiefs from the Bank of England (London, 1707), p. 17.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Jonathan Swift, The history of the four last years of the queen, Davis, ed., Prose works, vii, 70.

⁹⁵ Ferguson, , Swift and Ireland, p. 69.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Hutchinson, , Letter to the gentlemen of the landed interest, pp. 16–17. Hutchinson does not seem to take the suggestion seriously.Google Scholar

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⁹⁸ Commons’ jn. Ire. iii, appendix, p. cci; and N.L.I. MS 2256, p. 8.

⁹⁹ Nicolson to Wake, 21 Oct. 1721, B.L. Add. MS 6116, fo. 115V.

¹⁰⁰ Letter to a member of parliament, pp. 12–13.

¹⁰¹ Rowley, , Answer to a book, pp. 21–2.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Ibid. pp. 7–8.

¹⁰³ Ibid. pp. 32–3.

¹⁰⁴ Irwin, John, The phoenix, or, a new scheme for establishing credit… (Dublin, 1721), p. 12; but land security is not made the foundation of this proposal.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ (Dublin, 1721), p. 2.

¹⁰⁶ Gray, J., An essay concerning the establishment of a national bank in Ireland (Dublin, 1779), p. 49.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Cf. also Pocock, J. G. A., The Machiavellian moment: Florentine political thought and the Atlantic republican tradition (Princeton, 1975), p. 448.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ A dialogue between Mr. Freeport, a merchant, and Tom Handy, a tradesman, concerning the bank (Dublin, 1721), p. 2.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Maxwell, , Reasons offer’d, pp. 10–11.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Remarks on Mr. Maxwell's and Mr. Rowley's letters: setting forth the advantages of a bank and lumbards in Ireland. In a letter to a friend (Dublin, 1721), p. 24. From phrasing throughout this pamphlet was evidently written before Maxwell's Second letter; see also p. 567 and n. 84 above.Google Scholar

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¹¹² Hutchinson, , Letter to the gentlemen of the landed interest, p. 10.Google Scholar

¹¹³ A brief account of the intended Bank of England (London, 1694), p. 12.Google Scholar

¹¹⁴ The same fear existed in England: see Rubini, Denis, ‘ Politics and the battle for the banks, 1688–1697’, English Historical Review, LXXXV (1970), 698 n. 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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¹¹⁶ Jonathan Swift, Swearers bank or, parliamentary security for a new bank, Davis, ed., Prose works, ix, 294.

¹¹⁷ Swift, Letter from a lady, Davis, ed., Prose works, ix, 302.

¹¹⁸ Maxwell, , Second letter, p. 11; Reasons offer’d, 2nd edn, postscript.Google Scholar

¹¹⁹ Hutchinson, , Letter to the gentlemen of the landed interest, p. 28.Google Scholar

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¹²⁴ Percival to Berkeley, 9 Nov. 1721, Rand, Benjamin, Berkeley and Percival (Cambridge, 1914), p. 184.Google Scholar

¹²⁵ Same to same, 21 Oct. 1721, Ibid. p. 181.

¹²⁶ Thomas Brodrick to Midleton, 22 Sept. 1721, Midleton papers, 1248/5, fo. 97.

¹²⁷ The parliamentary register: or, history of the proceedings and debates of the house of commons of Ireland (2nd edn, Dublin, 1784), 1, 298–9.Google Scholar

¹²⁸ See p. 562 above.

¹²⁹ Rowley, , Answer to a book, p. 43.Google Scholar

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¹³¹ Cf. Anderson, Adam, An historical and chronological deduction of the origin of commerce, from the earliest accounts (London, 1764), i, v: ‘Whatever may be said to be useful and excellent… may be truly affirmed to be principally communicated by Commerce, either primarily or mediately.’.Google Scholar

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¹³⁴ Ibid. p. 36.

¹³⁵ Letter to Henry Maxwell, pp. 9–10.

¹³⁶ Rowley, , Answer to a book, pp. 25–6.Google Scholar

¹³⁷ Ibid. p. 26.

¹³⁸ A vindication of the Bank of England from the misrepresentations, and groundless suggestions of a late pamphlet, entituled, Remarks upon the Bank of England (London, 1707), p. 31.Google Scholar

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¹⁴⁰ Ibid. pp. 44–6.

¹⁴¹ Meath to Wake, 29 Sept. 1721, Wake MSS, xiii, fo. 279.

¹⁴² See Ibid. fos. 271 and 287.

¹⁴³ Gray, , Essay concerning a national bank, p. 30.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁴ Pocock, J. G. A., ed., The political works of James Harrington (Cambridge, 1977), p. 409.Google Scholar

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¹⁴⁷ Ibid. p. 17.

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¹⁴⁹ Objections against the general bank, p. 2. This argument appeared in the house of commons also: see Nicolson to Wake, 21 Oct. 1721, B.L. Add. MS 6116, fo. 115.

¹⁵⁰ Parliamentary register, p. 301.

¹⁵¹ Some useful reflections, p. 3.

¹⁵² See Robbins, , Eighttenth-century commonwealthman, pp. 103–5Google Scholar; Pocock, Machiavellian moment, chs. xii and xiii, esp. p. 425; No standing armies: the anti-army controversy in seventeenth-century England (Baltimore, 1975).Google Scholar

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¹⁵⁴ Hutchinson, , Letter to the gentlemen of the landed interest, pp. 28, 32.Google Scholar

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¹⁵⁹ Pocock, ‘English political ideologies’, p. 115, coins the term ‘neo-Harringtonian’, but is there concerned largely with the relationship between constitution and standing army. There is, I would suggest, a clear parallel in the debate on the bank.

¹⁶⁰ Swift, , Letter from a lady, p. 302.Google Scholar

¹⁶¹ Maxwell, , Reasons offer’d, pp. 60–1.Google Scholar

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¹⁶⁵ Pocock, , Machiavellian moment, pp. 423–4.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁶ Maxwell, Henry, An essay towards an union of Ireland with England (London, 1703).Google Scholar

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¹⁶⁸ Robbins, , Eighteenth-century commonwealthman, pp. 142–55.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁹ Cf. Coxe, Walpole, 1, 222, who asserts that this animosity arose in 1723.