Introduction: Part One

Introduction.

In the two preceding volumes of this Calendar the story of the financial troubles of Charles II. has been carried down to the end of the year 1668. It has been thought advisable to extend the present volume so as to include the period up to Lord Clifford's Treasurership, thereby covering the episode of the stop of the Exchequer. The real nature of that episode, the first acknowledged bankruptcy in English History, was perfectly well understood by the contemporary official and financial world of England. Nor did contemporary writers misunderstand it. Burnet's account, for instance, though written thirty years after the event, is in its form unimpeachable. Misrepresentation arose first at the hand of Whig politicians, followed therein by Whig historians, but it has been reserved for modern writers to improve such misrepresentation by the most absurd and unhistorical innuendos. In its grossest form the modern version of the myth states that the bankers had been in the habit of depositing in the Exchequer cash balances or reserves for safe keeping and that Charles II. simply seized upon these deposits. And even where such misstatement is avoided the inference is invariably drawn that Charles profited instantly by the amount of the bankers' assignments which were stopped.

The two preceding introductions will have failed of their purpose if they have not foreshadowed at once the inevitability of the impending national bankruptcy and the exact technical nature or procedure of the transaction itself.

As to the first of the points, the inevitability of the act of bankruptcy, it is a mere matter of figures. The accounts of Charles's income have been already brought down to the end of the year 1668. In the following tables they are carried on to the date of the stop of the Exchequer.

Hereditary Revenue of the King.

Parliamentary Revenue of the King.

Total Income: Hereditary and Parliamentary.

Net Produce of the Hereditary Revenue of the Crown after Deduction of Loans and Parliamentary Taxes.

Total Revenue of England from the Restoration to the Stop of the Exchequer.

Or' a yearly average for 11½ years of 1,570,089l. 8s. 9d. for both hereditary and extraordinary revenue.

In the above brief account of total revenue I have allowed the items of loan money to rank as revenue. For the purpose of a balance sheet this does not matter, because (up to the stop of the Exchequer) the loans were faithfully repaid, so that these items appear on both sides of the account, debit and credit. But for the purpose of the average of yearly revenue they should certainly not be so included, for a loan is not income. The items of loan money given in table A supra pp. viii. and ix. total over a million and a half for the 3¼ years covered by the account, representing an average loan account of half a million a year. For the whole 11½ years from the Restoration to the Stop of the Exchequer these loans total over 2½ millions, and would thus reduce the average income by 230,000l. a year and would thus bring down Charles's total revenue to about 1,340,000l. per an. In other words all the additional extraordinary parliamentary grants of every kind (the bulk of which was granted for war purposes) only just succeeded in covering up the deficit on the ordinary revenue, which should have been 1,200,000l. per an. without war taxes or extraordinary aids of any kind.

Total Expenditure of England from the Restoration to the Stop of the Exchequer.

For the reasons stated in the introduction to Vol. II of this Calendar pp. xiii seq. it is impossible to give the authentic figures. But a deduction can be made on the following principle:—

During the four years 1661–5 the total expenditure (including no war expenditure whatever or any other extraordinary expenditure) was 5,245,306l. 7s. 7d., representing a yearly average of 1,311,326l. 11s. 10d. as the average yearly peace expenditure of the country.

Prior to the Stop of the Exchequer no drastic economies were made in the ordinary peace establishments.

Taking this average, therefore, the total expenditure was probably:—

Without insisting upon every figure of this statement I take it as a perfectly just and sound deduction that at the time of the stop of the Exchequer the National Debt amounted to between 2 and 2¼ millions sterling. This debt consisted partly in running debts on the various departmental services and partly in loan or other liabilities, the nature of which will be described immediately.

To return to the period covered by the present instalment of Calendar. The actual expenditure for the whole period cannot be given for the reasons already stated. Only three half-yearly declarations of issues have survived and these are not cast up. I have, however, cast up the items and totalled them as follows, and as the best substitute for an exact statement of expenditure for the missing Exchequer half years I have appended to this table of three half-yearly declarations the chief statements of departmental expenditure from the Declared Accounts. In their totality they are absolutely reliable and final, and will be found to confirm the general estimate of expenditure and debt given above.

Expenditure.

Customs.

Excise.

Navy.

Victualling.

Prizes in Second Dutch War.

Ordnance.

Army and Garrisons.

Tangier.

Cofferer of the Household.

Treasurer of the Chamber.

Keeper of the Great Wardrobe.

Master of the Robes.

Works.