[132] The particular sums may be found in a pamphlet, entitled, The Present State of the Nation, p. 28, quarto edition. But I have not included all the sums there enumerated; nor have I admitted the Army savings in 1772, and some other smaller sums.
[133] This surplus, being the medium for the whole 12 years of peace, is less than that in [p. 160], which is the medium at the end of this period, when the Sinking-Fund produced above a quarter more than it did at the beginning of it.
[134] I have here taken the average of two years before and after 1766.
[135] The annual medium of the payments into the Exchequer from the Customs in England, for the last five years, has been 2.521,769l.—In 1774 the payment into the Exchequer was 2.547,717l.—In 1775, it was 2.476,302l.—The produce of the Customs, therefore, has been given rather too high.
The produce of the Excises in England has been higher, in 1772 and 1775, than in any two years before 1776; but the average of any three successive years, or of all the five years since 1770, will not differ much from the sum I have given.—In 1754, or the year before the last war, the Customs produced only 1.558,254l.—The Excises, exclusive of the Malt-tax, produced 2.819,702l,—And the whole revenue, exclusive of the Malt-tax and Land-tax at 2s. was 5.097,617l.—In 1753 the whole revenue was 5.189,745l. And the appropriation or annual charge upon it, (consisting of the Civil List, 834,443l. interest of the national debt, exclusive of navy debt, 2.628,087l. expences of management, 43,691l. 4½ per cent. from the Leeward Islands 27,378l. annuity to the late Duke of Cumberland 25,000l. first-fruits and tenths of the Clergy 13,597l. &c. &c.) was 3.733,713l. The Sinking-Fund, therefore, produced 1.456,000l.; which, added to 1.500,000l. (the neat produce, at that time, of Land at 2s. and Malt-tax) made the unappropriated revenue 2.956,032l.—The expence of the peace establishment, consisting of 10,000 seamen, and 18,857 landmen, was, in 1753 and 1754, (including an allowance for the increase of the Navy-debt) 2.400,000l. nearly; which left an annual surplus in the national income of 556,000l. without lotteries, and land at 2s. This surplus (with land at 3s.) has of late scarcely exceeded 300,000l.; and, therefore, has not been a THIRD of what it was in the last peace, and before the reduction of interest to 3 per cent. was compleated.
[136] This article was omitted in the former editions of this Postscript; and its insertion here makes the diminution of the public debts, since 1763, half a million less than the sum at which it is taken in [p. 104] and [108].—It might have been proper also to add, the excess of Navy debts contracted above the Navy debts discharged, from 1763 to 1775; and had this been done, the surplus in [p. 165], would have been reduced to 150,000l.
[137] See The Present State of the Nation, page 26.
[138] This article was omitted in the first editions of this Postscript.—It might have been proper to add, the excess of Navy debts contracted above the Navy debts discharged, from 1763 to 1775; and had this been done, the surplus in [p. 166], would have been reduced to 150,000l. per ann.
[139] Or, for every 105l. contributed, 100l. STOCK irredeemable for 10 years might have been given, carrying 4¼ per cent. interest, with the same short annuity and a lottery ticket annexed; and then the new capital would have been 4.762,000l. carrying (at 4¼ per cent.) 202,385l. per ann. interest. The amount of the short annuity would have been 23,810l. and the number of lottery tickets 47,620.
[140] 211,375l. the interest at 4½ of 4.750,000l. and 12,500l. a short annuity of a QUARTER per cent. annexed to every 100l. contributed, make 223,875l. This last sum, therefore, would have been the annual charge for 10 years; and the first sum the annual charge after ten years till redemption.