An Example of Communal Currency: The facts about the Guernsey Market House

by Joseph Theodore Harris

"In 1813 the sea which had in former times swallowed up large tracts, threatened from the defective state of its banks to overflow a great extent of land. The sum required to avert the danger was estimated at more than £10,000, which the adjoining parishes subject to this charge were not in a condition to raise. The state of the finance was not more consolatory, with a debt of £19,137, and an annual charge for interest and ordinary expenses of £2,390, the revenue of £3,000 left only £600 for unforeseen expenses and improvements.

"Thus at the peace, this Island found itself with little or no trade; little or no disposable revenue; no attraction for visitors, no inducement for the affluent to continue their abode, and no prospect of employment for the poor. No wonder, therefore, if emigration became the object of the rich in search of those good roads, carriages and other comforts which they could not find at home, and the only resource of the other classes, whose distress was likely to be aggravated by the non-residence of the former. Misery and depopulation appeared inevitable, from the peace to the year 1819 inclusive, more than five hundred native and other British subjects embarked for the United States, and more prepared to follow.

"It is said, the powers of the human mind in society lie at times torpid for ages; at others, are roused into action by the urgency of great occasions, and astonish the world by their effects. This has, in some measure, been verified in this Island, for though nothing done in so small a community can cause a general sensation, its exertions may yet produce wonderful results, within its own sphere. It is the duty of the States to show that, roused by the deplorable situation above described, they took, and have since pursued the steps best adapted to meet the exigency of the case, and that those steps have been attended with complete success.

"To increase the revenue was an indispensable preliminary, but to do so, no other means lay within the power of the States than a tax on the several parishes according to the rates at which they were respectively assessed, and to this tax there were insuperable objections....

"Under these circumstances was the application made for the duty on spirituous liquors: and notwithstanding the opposition of many of the inhabitants His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, was graciously pleased by an Order in Council of 23rd July, 1814 to authorise the States to raise 1s. per Gallon on all such liquors consumed in this Island for the term of 5 years. The same duty was renewed for 10 years by virtue of a second Order in Council of 19th June, 1819 after similar opposition. And on the declaration at Your Lordships' bar of the advocate deputed by the opponents that a clause to the following effect would reconcile them to the measure, and no objection being made to it on the part of the States, these words were inserted in the gracious Order in question: viz.:—'That One Thousand Pounds per annum of the produce of the said duty be applied solely to the liquidation of the present debt, together with such surplus as shall remain out of the produce of the tax in any year after defraying the expenses of roads and embankments and unforeseen contingencies. And that the States of the said Island do not exceed in any case the amount of their annual income without the consent previously obtained of His Royal Highness in Council: and the said States are hereby directed to return annually to the Privy Council an account of the produce and application of the said tax.'

"In 1825 the Lt. Governor Sir John Colborne, and the States, having extended their views to the erection of a new College and other important works which could not be undertaken without the assurance of a renewal of the duty, constituting the chief part of the revenue, a third Order in Council of the 30th September, 1825, conceded to the States the right of levying the same for 15 years, beginning on the 1st September, 1829, and this without the smallest opposition from any of the inhabitants, and without the conditions annexed to the second Order.

"With gratitude for the means placed at their disposal the States feel an honest pride in the recital of the manner in which those means have been applied. First, considering the danger arising from the bad state of the sea embankments, and the hardship of subjecting particular parishes to a charge for the general safety to which they were unequal, the States took on themselves the present repairs, and future maintenance of those embankments. This essential object connected with the paved slips or avenues to the beach, has been attended with an expence of £14,681 19s., without including five or six thousand for a breakwater to defend the line of houses at Glatney, on the North side of the Town.

"Independently of the sums contributed by Government towards the military roads, from twenty-nine to thirty thousand pounds have been expended by the Island on the roads, so that in lieu of those before described, there are now fifty-one miles of roads of the first class, as good as those of any country, with excellent footways on all of them, and 17 miles of the second class.

"Not only the main Harbour, Piers, Quays, Buoys and Sea Marks have been attended to, and at a great expense, but, in order to facilitate the exportation of the granite from the North of the Island, the Harbour of St. Sampson has been rendered secure and convenient by a new Breakwater and Quay.

"The situation and state of the Town were thought to preclude all hopes of much amelioration, but the widening of High Street, and other streets, the reducing the precipitous ascent to the Government and Court House, the clearing away of the unsightly buildings that obstructed the view and approach to those public edifices, the new sewers, pavements, and, above all, the Public Markets and new Fountain Street, attest the solicitude of the States towards the Town, and surprise those who return to it after a few years absence. Add to these the enlarging and improving of the Court House and Record Office, where the public have daily access, and where are kept the contracts and registry of all the real property (of) the Island. Add also the New College, which, with the laying out of its grounds and the roads round its precincts, contributes to the embellishment of the town, induces families from other places to settle in the Island, on account of their children, and affords to the inhabitants the ready means of a good education.