54 A. D. 1717. 



The original capital flock was - - Li, 600,000 o o 

 The exchequer-bills, cancelled by the 7th of Queen 



Anne ----- i',775,027 17 10 



And now by exchequer-bills cancelled - 2,000,000 o o 



Total bank capital - L5,375,o27 17 10 



But their original capital of Li, 600, 000 was to continue at fix per 

 cent interefl: to the ift of Auguft 1742. 



The next adl \c. 9] was for redeeming the yearly fund of the Sotith- 

 fea company at fix per cent, and fettling on them a yearly fund at five 

 per cent, redeemable by parliament, &c. as before mentioned, viz. 



The South fea Company's prefent capital being 10 millions, 



And their prefent annual fund being L6oo,ooo, their fund was now 

 reduced from fix to five per cent, i. e. from L6oo,ooo to 1.500,000 

 from midfiammer 1718, befides their yearly allowance of L8, 000 for 

 charges of management. The company were alfo hereby impowered 

 to borrow money on their common feal, either for the purpofes of this 

 ac^, or for carrying on their trade, or other neceflary occafions, at fuch 

 interefl as they fhould think fit, and for any time not lefs than fix 

 months : and although their fund might be redeemed, on one year's no- 

 tice, after midfummer 1723, yet their trade and corporate capacity was 

 hereby to continue for ever. This was, in the fl:ile of the exchequer, 

 called the South-fea fund. 



By all thefe favings, viz. by one per cent on the funds before men- 

 tioned, and by one penny per cent per day, faved for the future on the 

 exchequer-bills hereafter to be circulated, a good foundation was laid for 

 the famous finking fund, amounting then to L323,434 : 7 : 74- per an- 

 num. Moreover, for the greater conveniency of the proprietors of the 

 lottery-orders and other debts at the exchequer, hereby ranged under 

 this new general fund, they were brought from the exchequer to the 

 bank, and erected into a transferrable fl;ock, at five per cent interefl:. 

 The yearly faving or furplus, called the finking fund, was hereby to be 

 folely applicable to the difcharge of the principal and interefl: of fuch 

 national debts as were contraded before chriftmas 1716. As by the 

 ud c. 7, the moiety of the original bankers debt, whicli had been fixed 

 at fix per cent by the ad 12 Gul. III. c. 12, and which moiety was 

 thereby properly made the whole debt on the public to be redeemed, 

 amounting to L664,263, was included in the redemption from fix to five 

 per cent. And as almofl: all the other public debts comprehended in 

 that ad, called the aggregate-fund, were either fubfcribed into the South- 

 fea company in the year 1720, or ha^-e fince been paid otf or annihilat- 

 ed, we have the more concifely defcribed them, as they now exifl: no 

 more. > 



