All the savings and surplus monies of the kingdom from 1763 to 1775, have amounted (deducting 400,000l. gained by debts discharged at a discount) to 10.739,793l. and with this sum 11.139,793l. of the national debt has been paid off. (See the Postscript at the end of this work.)—The needless addition which was made to the capital of the national debt, by injudicious schemes for raising money during the last war, exceeded this sum; and it follows, therefore, that the whole surplus of the revenue for twelve years, has not been sufficient to discharge the capital, to which in the last war a right was given, without receiving any money for it, or obtaining the least advantage by it.
The attentive reader must have observed, as I have gone along, that the extravagance on which I have insisted, has been the consequence of not separating, in the schemes for raising money, the premiums (consisting of short and long and life-annuities) from the perpetual annuities, and requiring them to be distinctly paid for; and also, of not attending to the difference between selling an annuity, and selling the stock for which that annuity is paid. When a 100l. stock in the 3 per cents. is at any given price, there is no one who would not be glad to purchase from government a perpetual annuity of 3l. at any lower price[110]. But when government sells the stock, instead of the annuity, at that price, the public is injured in the manner I have represented.
Would any one, in selling any part of his property, offer to make the purchase-money an outstanding principal which he shall be bound to return?[111] This is what government has uniformly done in its proposals for raising money.—Were I to desire any sum to be lent me without interest, offering as a compensation or premium an annuity for a given term, or an advantageous contract; the proposal would not be accepted, unless the annuity or the contract was worth the sum to be lent; and I should make myself a debtor to the purchaser for the very thing which I sold to him.—The absurdity would be the same, if instead of borrowing without interest, I should in the same way borrow at a low interest. In every such bargain, I should bring upon myself a needless debt, equal to the value of the premium.
I am afraid I have tired my reader’s attention on this subject. But as much depends upon a right understanding of it, I am anxious about shewing it in every possible light. In hopes, therefore, of being attended to a little longer, I shall endeavour to give a yet fuller view of this subject, and to prove its importance, by recapitulating some of the foregoing remarks, and comparing the present state of our public debts, with that which would have been their state, had the errors I have pointed out, in the schemes of the public loans during the last war, been avoided.
The sum of 12 millions, borrowed in 1762, would have left, at the end of the war, a redeemable capital of 7.200,000l. carrying 5 per cent. interest, with an annuity added of 120,000l. for 18 years from January 1763, instead of an ir-redeemable capital of 12 millions carrying 4 per cent. for 18 years, and afterwards 3 per cent. See [page 95, &c.]
The sum of 12 millions, borrowed in 1761, would have left a redeemable capital of 9 millions bearing 4 per cent. interest, with a long annuity annexed; instead of 12 millions with the same annuity annexed. [Page 100.]
The sum of 8 millions, borrowed in 1760, would have left a redeemable capital of 6.180,000l. carrying 4 per cent. with an annuity of 82,400l. for 18 years from January 1763; instead of 8.240,000l. ir-redeemable, and carrying 4 per cent. for 18 years, and afterwards 3 per cent. [Page 99.]
The sum of 6.600,000l. borrowed in 1759, would have left a capital of 6.450,000l. carrying 3½ per cent; instead of a capital of 7.590,000l. carrying 3 per cent. [Page 95.]
The sum of five millions, borrowed in 1758, would have left a redeemable capital of 4.350,000l. bearing 3½ per cent. interest, with an annuity added of 22,500l. for 19 years from Midsummer 1763; instead of a capital of five millions irredeemable, and carrying 3½ per cent. for 19 years, and afterwards 3 per cent. [Page 101, 102, &c.]
The sum of three millions, borrowed in 1757, would have left a capital of two millions and a half bearing 3½ per cent. interest, instead of three millions bearing 3 per cent. interest.—And two millions, borrowed in 1756, instead of leaving a capital of two millions, would have left a capital of only 1.750,000l. [Page 104.]