By consulting the "Accounts presented to the House of Commons respecting the public funded debt of Great Britain, and the reduction thereof to the 1st of February, 1809," ordered to be printed 24th March, 1809, we may learn the amount of debt to be on the 1st of February, 1809, as follows:

Capitals at 3 per cent. per annum.

Bank of England, and an

nuities created in 1726,

South Sea old and new an

nuities, in 1751,

Consolidated annuities,

Reduced annuities,

L.

S. d.

Total capital at 3 per cent. 566,857,691, 7 92

Total debt of Great-Britain, £735,611,752, 8 112

Public debt of Ireland, payable in Dublin; taken from "Account presented to the House of Commons respecting the public funded debt of Ireland, for the year ended 5th January, 1809;" ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 6th March, 1809.

The unfunded debt and demands outstanding, of Great-Britain and Ireland, for the year ended 1st January, 1809, as taken from the Finance-Accounts presented to the House of Commons, and by them ordered to be printed 24th March, 1809, and 6th March, 1809, were for Great-Britain,

Exchequer-bills,

Treasury-bills,.

Army, barracks, ordnance, navy, civil-list advances,

£. s. d.

40,093,200

1,302,817

9,470,311 19 4

But as the greatest part of this capital of debt is vested in £3 per cent. stock, every £100 of which is equal only to £60 sterling, we must deduct at least one-third from the whole amount of the debt, in order to reduce it into sterling; thus,

Total nominal debt, funded and unfunded, of Great Britain and Ireland, £806,832,851 16 101

Deduct one-third, namely,

268,945,284 5 34

And the total debt in sterling is £537,888,567 11 6

The following column will show the difference between the real quantity of sterling money borrowed and the nominal capital created by funding; that is, vesting in stock the sum borrowed. In 1806 a loan of £18,000,000 was raised, but the stock vested was nearly £30,000,000.

The terms of the loan raised that year were, for every £100 subscribed, £70, 3 per cent. reduced; £70, 3 per cent. consols; and £10, 5 per cent. navy; making a total of £150 stock for every £100 sterling. The rate of interest on the loan was £4 14s. 7d. per cent.

In 1807, a loan of £14,200,000 was raised, on the following terms:

£70, 3 per cent. consols, at 624 price of stocks,

is £43 9 3

£70, 3 per cent. reduced, at 611 is 43 1

£12, 5 per cent.

906

£96 12 9 3 18 0

£100 10 9

About £ per cent. premium,

In 1808 a loan of £8,000,000 for England, and £2,500,000 for Ireland, was raised thus: for every £100, the subscribers agreed to take £.118 3s. 6d. in the 4 per cents: thus creating a capital of £12,408,475; the interest of the English part being at the rate of £4 14s. 64d. per cent. amounted to £475,536. By funding £4,000,000 of exchequer-bills, the total capital created was £13,693,263; the total annual charge of which was £728,783; to cover this there were, short annuities fallen in £375,000; saving in the management of the public debt £65,000; increase in the assessed taxes £120,000; stamp-duties £170,000:-Total £730,000. The chancellor of the exchequer said, that by funding £4,000,000 of exchequer-bills, when stocks were at 634, and by borrowing £10,500,000 in the four instead of the three per cents, he had saved to the public £4,000,000 of capital debt; and that by contracting for the loan in the four per cents, there was a saving of £3,100,000 capital debt; and a saving in the annual charge of £200,000; besides the advantage of being able to redeem the debt at a very small loss.

The cause of the great difference between the real sum borrowed and the nominal capital funded, is explained at length in the " Edinburgh Review," Vol.

3d, pp. 478–481. It is because the lenders of money to the British government have generally extorted high terms for their loans, on account of the existing embarrassments of the times, the ready market opened for capital elsewhere, and the want of entire confidence in the stability of the public funds.→ Whence loans are procured at a great disadvantage, the creditor receiving a premium beyond what he could obtain by lending his money in ordinary times, or by vesting it in any other mode of employment. This disadvantage has been increased by funding in those stocks which bear the greatest discount and a lower rate of interest; whence, in order to diminish the amount of taxes required to pay the interest of the new debt, great additions have been made to the principal. Nevertheless, while the nation is only burdened with the annuity payable upon this nominal capital, the interest at which it has raised the money is not exorbitant, although the loans may have been made at high premiums; because the interest is considerably under the market-rate when stocks are at par. This may be seen by looking back on the loan raised in 1806; the interest of £18,000,000, the sum borrowed, at £5 per cent. per annum, is £900,000; but the interest of £29,880,000, the capital created, or stock funded that year, was only £896,400; less than the legal rate of £5 per cent. on the money raised by the loan.

It next remains to be shown how much of the public funded debt of Britain is already paid off by the operation of the Sinking Funds.

Her Public Funds are the taxes appropriated by Parliament to the support of civil government, and the payment of the principal and interest of the money borrowed for the public service, or in other words of the national debt. These funds are four, the Aggregate Fund, the South-Sea Fund, the General Fund, and the Sinking Fund.