4o8 A. D. 1764. 



funded, it mny be proper to obferve, that the capital of the national 

 debt, whicli in the year 1755 was - - ^^72, 289, 673 o o 



was now, according to the accounts made up to 



5th January 1764, - - 129,586,789 10 2 



to \vhich muft be added the debt then remaining 



unfunded, - _ - - 9,975,017 12 2 



making the total debt - - )Ci39>56i,8o7 2 4 



bcfides which, there are annuities for terms of years and for Uves, pay- 

 able at the bank, the value of which muft be changing every day. 



But as the national creditors have no right to demand repayment of 

 their capital from government, and as the real value of the capital is 

 fubjecl to dayly fluctuations, it feems more corred: to reckon the na- 

 tional debt by the amount of the annual fums adlually paid to the cre- 

 ditors. 



There were due to the ftock-holders, or national creditors, on the 

 5th of January 1764, perpetual annuities (redeemable, however, in the 

 option of government) to the annual amount of ;^4, 195,032 18 7 

 and in terminable annuities, fome for lives, others for 

 limited terms, payable at the bank and the exchequer, 493,144 12 5 



Total annual amount of the funded debt *, ^4,688,177 11 o 



The revenue provided by parliament for the above, and the other 

 branches of the national expenditure, in the year 

 1764 was - . _ /l7.759'574 15 7 



The king of France, confidering the impofTibility of complying with 

 an order againft French or Englifti vefl'els coming within a league of 

 each-other's iflands, and that, if the Britifli government were to reta- 

 liate by a regulation of equal feverity, his own fubjeds muft fuffer by 

 it, lent orders to the Weft-Indies to allow all veflels to fail along the 

 fliores with freedom, and even to put into the ports in cafe of neceflity. 



The grols revenue of the poft-office this year amounted to>{^28i,535 ; 

 in the year 1664 it was farmed for X^2 1,500; and in 1644 (only twenty 

 years earher) it was eftimated fo low as ;/^5000. Such is the increafe of 

 correfpondence, arifing from the increafe of commerce, and the increaf- 

 ed facility and diipatch in the conveyance of letters. 



■ * Tlie annuities of every kind payable at tlie annuities, have fwellcd the amount of the capital, 



bank are paid half-yearly, and thofe payable at varioiifly, accordinj^ to the rates they afTumed in 



the excticqiicr quarterly. their calculations, wliich, it is evident, mult in a 



Auriois who have written upon the national great raeufure be arbitrary. 

 debt, by calculating the value of the terminable 



I 



