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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 832: FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

With the prosperity of the country the public revenue improved. Taxes had been remitted last year to a considerable amount, but notwithstanding this the revenue had increased. It produced £57,672,999, leaving a clear balance of £1,710,985 over the expenditure, besides the established sinking-fund of £5,000,000. The chancellor of the exchequer proposed to employ a part of this surplus in a grant of £500,000 for the erection of new churches; of £300,000, for the renovation and improvement of Windsor Castle; and of £60,000 for the purchase of the Angerstein pictures, in furtherance of a design to establish a national gallery for the fine arts. In his financial calculations for this year the chancellor of the exchequer anticipated a continued surplus, on the strength of which he proposed a further repeal of taxes to the amount of more than £1,000,000; and as an auxiliary measure, he suggested the discontinuance of certain bounties on fisheries and manufactures, which he considered no longer necessary. In his arrangement an extension of the scheme for reducing the interest of the national debt formed a prominent feature. He proposed to convert the old four per cent, stock, amounting to £75,000,000, into a new fund, bearing interest at three and a half per cent.; and giving the holders the option of being-paid off at par, or of acceding to the new plan. This arrangement met with the decided approbation of parliament, and was carried into execution with great facility. It may be mentioned that during this year Austria unexpectedly repaid £2,500,000 for loans advanced by the British government during the late war. This was but a small dividend on the debt due to England, but it enabled the ministers to be liberal, as they were disposed.