

DEBT, NATIONAL. 



the value of the terminable annuities, 

 and the amount of the unfunded debt, 

 the total was 268 ,267, '2721. the annual 

 interest and allowance for management 

 on which amounted to 9,752,67o/. From 

 this amount, however, a deduction of 

 more than eight millions is to be made 

 for the stock which had been bought 

 up at that period by the commissioners 

 for the reduction of the debt. The mag- 

 nitude of the sums borrowed in the 

 course of the war which began in 1793, 

 and the circumstance of the loans be- 

 ing chiefly made on 3 per cent, stock, 

 caused an unparalleled increase of the 

 national debt, attended with a great de- 

 preciation of the current prices of the 

 public funds, which obliged the govern- 

 ment to pay a very high interest for the 

 money borrowed. In the years 1797 and 

 1798, it was found impracticable to raise 

 the sums required without paying up- 

 wards of 6 per cent, interest, being a 

 higher rate than had been paid on any 

 money borrowed for the public service 

 since the reign of Queen Anne. In the 

 latter years of the war, large sums be- 

 ing levied by extraordinary taxes, the 

 amount of the loans was rendered 

 somewhat less than it otherwise must 

 have been ; they were still, however, of 

 unprecedented magnitude : and in 1802, 

 after the conclusion of the war, it was 

 found necessary to borrow twenty-five 

 millions more, to make good expcnces 

 of the war which had not been provided 

 for. The total amount of the loans of 

 this war was 200,500,000/. by which a 

 debt was created of 310,424,32o/. ; to this 

 must be added the amount of stock creat- 

 ed by funding Navy and Exchequer bills, 

 making the total amount of funded debt 

 incurred by the war 351,125,730/. and 

 the interest payable thereon 11,676,1447. 

 per ann. This is exclusive of the Impe- 

 rial loans, which there can be little doubt 

 will remain a perpetual burthen to this 

 country. 



Among other financial occurrences of 

 this period, the public debt of Ireland be- 

 came in a great measure blended with 

 that of Great Britain, from which it had 

 hitherto been entirely distinct. Ireland 

 has constantly had a public debt from 



about the year 1760, but its amount was 

 for many years very small in comparison 

 with the magniiude to which it hu 

 increased, as will appear from the follow- 

 ing statement : 



Yean. 



1761 

 1771 

 1781 

 1791 

 1801 



Debt. 



L 223,438 



773,320 



1,551,704 



2,464,590 



31,950,656 



The loans which became necessary in 

 consequence of the war, were in the first 

 year raised wholly in Ireland on 5 pe$ 

 cent, stock. In 1794, an inducement was 

 offered to persons resident in England, 

 to subscribe to the loans of Ireland, by 

 making the dividends on part of the stock 

 receivable at the Bank of England ; and 

 the same plan was followed in 1795 and 

 1796 : but in 1797 the alarm of invasion, 

 and the disturbed state of the country, 

 rendered it impracticable for the govern- 

 ment of Ireland to raise the loan neces- 

 sary for the service of the year, with- 

 out submitting to the most exorbitant 

 terms ; in consequence of which it was 

 deemed preferable that it should be 

 chiefly raised and funded in Great Bri- 

 tain, as part of the sum borrowed by the 

 government of that country. The joint 

 loans for Great Britain and Ireland were, 

 therefore, raised as one sum, the interest 

 of the whole being charged on the con- 

 solidated fund of (ireat Britain ; and in 

 this manner all the principal loans for the 

 service of Ireland have been since raised, 

 the government of that country remitting 

 annually the interest, charges of manage- 

 ment, and appropriation of one per cent, 

 on the capital, in order to reimburse the 

 payments made from the consolidated 

 fund on this account. 



The total amount of the funded debt 

 of Ireland, on the 5th of January 1807, 

 was 64,721,356/. 15. the principal part 

 of which, having been actually borrowed 

 by the government of Great Britain, is in- 

 cluded in the following statement, as with 

 respect to the public creditors, the whole 

 of the sums thus borrowed arc the pro- 

 per debt of Great Britain. 



