POSTSCRIPT.
The following Postscript was published only in a few of the last Editions of the Observations on Civil Liberty. It has been often referred to in the preceding work; and therefore, it is necessary to give it a place here.
Account of Public Debts discharged, Money borrowed, and Annual Interest saved from 1763 to 1775.
| Debts paid off since 1763. | Annuity decreased. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £. | £. | s. | ||||
| 1765 | 876,888 | funded, bearing interest at | 4 | per cent. | 34,835 | 10 |
| 1.500,000 | unfunded, | 4 | per cent. | 60,000 | 00 | |
| 1766 | 0.870,888 | funded, | 4 | per cent. | 34,835 | 10 |
| 1.200,000 | unfunded, | 4 | — | 48,000 | 00 | |
| 1767 | 2.616,777 | funded, | 4 | — | 104,671 | 0 |
| 1768 | 2.625,000 | funded, | 4 | — | 105,000 | 0 |
| 1771 | 1.500,000 | funded, | 3½ | per cent. | 52,500 | 0 |
| 1772 | 1.500,000 | funded, | 3 | per cent. | 45,000 | 0 |
| 1773 | 800,000 | unfunded, | 3 | — | 24,000 | 0 |
| 1774 | 1.000,000 | funded, | 3 | — | 30,000 | 0 |
| 1775 | 1.000,000 | funded, | 3 | — | 30,000 | 0 |
| Total | 15.483,553 | Total | 568,842 | 0 | ||
In 1764, there was paid off 650,000l. navy-debt; but this I have not charged, because scarcely equal to that annual increase of the navy-debt for 1764, 1765, and 1766, which forms a part of the ordinary peace establishment. The same is true of 300,000l. navy-debt, paid in 1767; of 400,000l. paid in 1769; of 100,200l. paid in 1770; 200,000l. in 1771; 215,883l. in 1772; and 200,000l. in 1774.
Account of money borrowed and debts contracted since 1763.
| £. | Annual interest increased. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borrowed and funded, at 3 per cent. | in | 1765 | 1.500,000 | 45,000 |
| in | 1766 | 1.500,000 | 45,000 | |
| in | 1767 | 1.500,000 | 45,000 | |
| in | 1768 | 1.900,000 | 57,000 | |
| Unfunded | in | 1774 | 250,000 | 7,500 |
| Civil list debt | in | 1775 | 500,000 | [138] |
| Total | 7.150,000 | 199,500 |
From 15.483,553l. the total of debts discharged, subtract 7.150,000l. the total of debts contracted; and the remainder, or 8.333,553l. will be the diminution of the public debts since 1763. Also, from 568,842l. the total of the decrease of the annual interest, subtract 199,500l. (the total of its increase), and the remainder, or 369,342l. will be the interest or annuity saved since 1763.—To this must be added 12,537l per ann. saved by changing a capital of 1.253,700l. (part of 20.240,000l.) from an interest of 4 to 3 per cent. pursuant to an act of the 10th of George III.; also the life-annuities that have fallen in; which will make a saving in the whole of near 400,000l. per annum: And it is to this saving, together with the increase of luxury, that the increase of the Sinking Fund for the last ten years has been owing.
To the debts discharged the following additions must be made.
In 1764 there was paid towards discharging the extraordinary expences of the army, 987,434l. In 1765, these expences amounted to 404,496l. In 1766, to 479,088l.—Total 1.871,018l.—This sum is 1.100,000l. higher than the extraordinary expences of the army for three years in a time of peace. This excess, being derived from the preceding war, must be reckoned a debt left by the war. And the same is true of 1.106,000l. applied, in 1764, 1765, and 1766, towards satisfying German demands.—There are likewise some smaller sums of the same kind; such as subsidies to Hesse-Cassel, Brunswick, &c. And they may be taken at 200,000l.—The total of all these sums is 2.406,240l. which, added to 8.333,553l. makes the whole diminution of the public debts, or the whole saving of the kingdom, since 1763, to be 10.739,793l.
Soon after the peace in 1763, an unfunded debt, amounting to 6.983,553l. was funded on the Sinking Fund, and on new duties on wine and cyder, at 4 per cent. There has been since borrowed and funded on coals exported, window-lights, &c. 6.400,000l. The funded debt, therefore, has increased since the war 13.383,553l. It has decreased (as may appear from [page 177]) 11.983,553l. and, consequently, there has been on the whole an addition to it of 1.400,000l.—During seven years, from 1768 to 1774, 1.115,883l. navy-debt was paid off. See [page 178]. But, as this is a debt arising from constant deficiencies in the peace estimates for the navy, it is a part of the current peace expences.—On the 31st of December, 1767, this debt was 1.213,072l.—On the 31st of December, 1774, it was 1.850,000l. and consequently, though 1.115,883l. was paid off, an addition was made to it, in seven years, of 673,028l. It increased, therefore, at the rate of 255,558l. per ann.