The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1888.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5169, 14 March 1888, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1888.

TitK Chancellor of the Exchequer's proposal for the conversion of three per cent, consols rings another change in respect of the National Debt. Perhaps a short history of England's national debt may be interesting. In 1(55)3 an Act was passed authorising the borrowing of a million on life annuities of 10 percent, till 1700, and during , the lives of the surviving , creditors at 7 percent. In the following , year the fsr.-t loan of a permanent character was eH'ected cm the occasion of tho chartering , ni" the Bank of England, when its capital of iiI.'JOU.OOO was lent to Government at S per cent, interest. The expensive continental wars in which we Were then engaged rapidly increased the national debt; so that at tito death of William 111., in 1702, it amounted to £10,391,702. During the reign of Queen Anne, it was increased by nearly thirtyeight million.';; so that at the accession of George ]~ iii 17M, it amounted to JM,tio,'M:i. During , tho reign of Georgu L, this sum was reduced by .£2,05;), 125.. From the accession of George 11., in 17-7. to the peace of Paris, in 1700, a sum of .£80,77:5,102 was added to it. The twelve yeans' peace which intervened between this and the commencement of the- American war, hi 1775, enabled upwards of ten millions of this i-.nm t<> be paid off. Thu American war added l> it not less than £\- 1,-('7,lW : f>o that at iis conclusion, in 1784, it amounted t>.> '-'- •!■>. ■>•'>!,«-'». During , the peace which followed, till the communeciiU'iil of the Fiviieh war, in 17U.J, iibuut ten and a half millions were paid off; J but the French war involved us in a debt of upwards of six hundred millions; m> that .'it tho conclusion of the war (Jan 5, ISlti), tin; unredeemed national debt amounted, to i;SS,'>,ISO,S'2-l. Since that tir.ie considerable cit'orts have been made to reduce tho debt by employing for that purpose tho surplus revenue: but, on the oihor hand, soveral large additions have been made- to it. Tims, a grant of £20,000,000 was voted by Parliament as compensation to the owners of slaves emancipated in the British colonies by the Act of IS3-"S; and the Crimean war occasioned an expenditure- that created a loan for another ,C 20,000,000. In 1841 the total aiuouut of debt was 1788,1-17,900, and in IS.*'.' it was i>,o'>.n7S,.V)!. At the end of J SOl tho total amount of tiie national debt was i)7!>!yiM'J,KO7, of which C7H 1,120,007 was funded and £lo,s2'.VSi><i was unfunded. Owing partly, perhaps, to the scarcity of money at the time, but more to want of confidence in the security of the Government, tho rate of interest paid at iirst was comparatively high : but us the country became richer, imrl the confidence iv the stability of the was imtreaecd, the rate was proportionally ruduccU. During the reigns of "William 111. and Anne, it varied greatly ; but iv that of George 11. a different system was adopted. Instead of the interest upon the loan varying according to lie value of money at the time, the rate of interei-t was fixed, generally at 3 or 3.V per cent., and rh« utiiuunt.of the principal sum wtw made to depend upon tfio value of money. Thus, if tho value of money was 4.V per cent., they gave tho lender £150 at iTper cent, for every .£IOO advanced. At fjrsi*bi) sums which constitute the national debt were upon the security of aoino particular tax; but in 1751 au Act was passed consolidating several slouks bearing an interest of ;J per cent, into one j.jY>»enil stock. Thus was formed what is known as the Th.n jirrmil. f'viiwk, or Co;;----ts(A.i'.l<xii'd An , ! -.tific*. which now couttitute by

much the largest portion, of the national debt, amounting to about four hundred millions. The Three per cent. Itoduvcd sliinititieis arose in 1707, beinir formed, us the name implies, of several funds, which had been previously borrowed at a higher rate of interest.