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The Finance of Lord Treasurer Godolphin
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
Godolphin had taken over the Treasury with an adverse balance, arising in the main out of the continental campaigns of William III., which the economies practised since the peace had, at the time of the King's death, failed to discharge. At the accession of the Queen, the funded debt stood at 10,000,000l. In addition to this, there were 2,338,628l. outstanding Exchequer Bills, borrowed at 7 and 8 per cent., and other arrears, amounting in all to about 12,750,000l. Taking the total revenue from taxation, direct and indirect, at 4,654,000l., which is the average of the last three years of William III., the outstanding indebtedness represented a capital sum approaching three times the annual taxation of the country. In 1697 a general mortgage was made of certain revenues and taxes amounting to nearly a million pounds a year, to be continued till 1706 as a fund for the discharge of about 5,100,000l. In the first session of the reign this mortgage was extended to 1710, to supply a deficiency of over 3¼ millions. Godolphin further allocated some additional taxes to constitute security for the floating Exchequer Bills (1 Anne, st. 1, c. 13).
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References
page 21 note 1 Very varied statements are to be found on this subject, the Encycl. Britannica stating the debt at the accession of Anne at 16,394,702l. On the other hand, Dowell (Hist. of Taxation, ii. 453)Google Scholar states it, both funded and unfunded, at 12,750,000l. I have therefore relied upon two elaborate contemporary extracts of the revenue and expenditure of the reigns of William III. and Anne, probably the documents prepared for the Committee of Inquiry of the House of Commons in 1711, since they conclude with Michaelmas 1710. Of these there are several copies hi various collections of MSS. In the British Museum. These documents purport to be reduced from the Treasury books. The particular copies used by me are Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 35902, and 35903 (Hardwicke Papers).
page 21 note 2 Dowell, , 1.s.c.Google Scholar The civil list was 130,000l. in debt. Treasury Papers (Anne), vol. lxxix. no. 70, 04 30, 1702.Google Scholar
page 21 note 3 Add. MSS. 35902.
page 26 note 1 Portl. MSS. v. 650.Google Scholar
page 27 note 1 Portl. MSS. iv. 659.Google Scholar
page 28 note 1 December 7, 1711. Portl. MSS. v. 126.Google Scholar
page 28 note 2 August 30, 1711. Ibid. 79.
page 28 note 3 [Earl Poulett to Robert Harley] 04 18, 1711Google Scholar. Portl. MSS. iv. 674.Google Scholar
page 28 note 4 Zollicoffre, B. to [the Earl of Oxford], 07 19, 1711Google Scholar. Ibid. 16.
page 29 note 1 Craggs, James to the Lord High Treasurer, 06 20, 1711Google Scholar. Ibid. 16.
page 29 note 2 Feb. 26, 1711 1712 Portl. MSS. v. 145.Google Scholar
page 29 note 3 Nov. 7, 1711. The Earl of Dumbarton to [the Earl of Oxford], ibid. 106.
page 29 note 4 ‘I have wrote to Mr. Deeker in case you should be scarce of money in the Treasury, to take the value of the bill in tin, out of which the foreign Ministers have been paid for some years.’ [John Drummond] to [Robert] Harley, , 2810 7 11 1710Google Scholar. Amsterdam, ibid. iv. 617.
page 29 note 5 ‘It is full five years' consumption here.’ Same to same. 29 11 9 12, 1710Google Scholar. Amsterdam, ibid. 634.
page 29 note 6 Morrison MSS. Hist. MSS. Commission, 9th Rept. Append, p. 471.
page 29 note 7 21 June. 1 July, 1711. Barcelona, Duke of Argyll to [the Earl of Oxford]. Portl. MSS. v. 17.Google Scholar
page 29 note 8 Ibid. 15. June 19, 1711.
page 30 note 1 Portl. MSS. v. 651Google Scholar. Edward Harley's Memoirs.
page 30 note 2 31 Jan. 10 Feb., 1710, 1711. The Hague. Charles Rudolph, Duke of Würtemberg, to the Duke of Marlborough. Ibid. iv. 656.
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page 31 note 1 Treasury Papers (Anne), R.O. cxlvii. 37.Google Scholar
page 31 note 2 Do., clxviii. 15.Google Scholar
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page 32 note 1 On September 11, 1707, he complained to Harley that he had received no remittances for five months. ‘Hitherto his Lordship's (Godolphin's) goodness to me seems like messages from an army to a town besieged, that relief is coming, which heartens and encourages the famished garrison but does not feed them.’ Portl. MSS. iv. 444.Google Scholar
page 32 note 2 Ibid. v. 401. News Letter, 03 18, 1713–1714.Google Scholar
page 32 note 3 Treasury Papers (Anne), cxlix. 16. 06 30, 1712.Google Scholar
page 32 note 4 The receipts of the secret service money from 1701 to 1710 show that the Queen received and signed with her own hand for 1000l, in 1707, a thousand guineas in 1708, and again in 1709, and 3000l. In the first part of 1710, the last receipt being dated June 8. Treasury Records Secret Service Bdle. 266. The accounts of the secret service money for the rest of the reign have not been found. Neither St. John's nor Harley's name appears in the volume examined. See also Viscount Bolingbroke to the Lord Treasurer, Jan. 6, 1713–14. Portl. MSS. v. 379.Google Scholar