5. That one tenth part of all the debts secured by public funds be remitted.
6. That one tenth part of all the other net personal estates of all the inhabitants of Great Britain, which affect land and public funds, be applied to the payment of the public debt.
7. That 2s. in the pound be made payable yearly out of the salaries and perquisites of all offices and places.
8. That the legal interest be reduced to four per cent. per annum.
9. That, for the effectual securing of the payment of such public debts, for which there either is at present no provision, or the provision made by Parliament appears deficient, all funds granted for any term of years be made perpetual, until the principal and interest of all the said public debts be fully paid off; and that the interest of such public debts as at present have defective or no securities be paid out of the yearly produce of the said funds; and that the remainder only of such produce, over and above the interest of the said public debts, be applied towards the sinking of the principal money.
10. That provisions may be made by an excise on apparel, or some other excise, sufficient to produce one million per annum in lieu of the land-tax, till all the public debts are discharged.
In 1715, Mr. Asgill published his plan for the more speedy redemption of all the perpetual funds; two millions were to be raised in specie, and deposited in a bank, to support the circulation of twenty millions of exchequer-bills at three per cent., with which all the redeemable debts were to be paid off. As an annual interest of £1,182,454 10s. 5d. was then paid for these redeemable debts, and as the interest of the two millions to be borrowed at six per cent., and of twenty millions of exchequer-bills at three per cent., amounted only to £720,000, the public would thus have acquired a sinking fund of £462,454 10s. 5d.
In 1719, Stephen Barbier proposed to pay the public debt. The plan of this gentleman was to convert forty millions of the debt into notes, bearing one per cent. less interest than the original fund, which was thus to be converted; the conversion was only to take place at the request of the creditor, who might thus at any time obtain both principal and interest. These notes were to be current in all pecuniary transactions, and were to be paid in specie, six months after they were presented for payment.
Such were the chief propositions at the commencement of the eighteenth century. It would be impracticable to follow the numerous schemes which have since been propounded, but a few of the later plans may not be uninteresting. In 1819, a proposition was made which boldly grappled with the immediate difficulty. Estimating the entire private property of the kingdom, on the lowest calculation, at two thousand five hundred millions, it suggested that all such property, including all claims on the government, in respect of money lent and advanced, should be declared liable to a contribution of fifteen per cent.
In 1821, a “practical scheme” appeared, the leading points of which were,—