January, 17845 increase to January, 1793} ditto war to January, 1802 Aggregate capital on income excluded Reverted to the ftate ... +211,363,254 6,639,307 nil 6,638,391 $26,869,993 $243,001,681 1,193,499 1,000,506 2,494,005 8,117,864 **2,479,352 10,597,196 502,8 10,913 17,039,026 4,242,549 21,272,575 (-)76,096,640 (-)1,505,454(+)1,805,454 (+)0 Amounts, January, 1802.....S 426,743,673 15,224,572 6,048,003 21,272,575 The November, 1801, added life-annuities, payable by Great Britain, 8.5841. other additions, two excepted, taken from Mr. Morgan; lifeannuities fallen in during eighteen years, 51,7711. thofe of the laft fixteen accrued to the finking-fund. Errors of Mr. Morgan: he omits to enter as annuities the remainder of tontine 1789, 18,4421. and long-annuity of 1790, 24,3551. Life-annuities, December, 1783, he flated at 82,3171. this includes the tontine of 5401. (fee Dr. Price, Rev. Payments, v. 1, here followed by him) fall in fifteen years only, by Mr. Addington's fecond refolution, 43,5971. therefore reduced to 39,720l. including the tontine. Mr. M. ftates the life-annuities, prior to the prefent reign, at 52,7271. excluding the tontine contained in his former account, making a feparate article of it, which is a double entry. We take a tontine here as a long-annuity of eighty-three years; this had about forty-eight to run; or its value at 5 per cent. is eighteen years purchafe. Mr. Morgan values it at 18,000l. or thirty-three years and one third purchafe; but following his first ac count, we have valued it with the other life-annuities. + Capital of January, 1784, fee note to Table I. Additions to fixed capital to January, 1793; Mr. Morgan having omitted to enter and value as fuch, the annuities of 1789 and 1790, obtained for part of an advance in the former year, has, as we conceive, entered the entire advance itfelf inftead thereof. In 1791, he brings to account a loan of a fingular nature; making the refumption of the unclaimed dividends at the Bank, 376,7391. an act of borrowing money, imprefted to public accountant for fervices no longer neceffary, when repaid constitutes no debt. Increase of capital iate war; the addditions to the feveral capitals by loans taken from Mr. Morgan's account to April, 1801, their fum is 104,8611. below the truth, as appears by Mr. Addington's refolu The debt of the Emperor, the repayment of which is fecured by this late, is 7,502,633. in the 3 per cents. and an annuity of 230,000l. for a term of which nearly twenty years remain unexpired; and of this we can only fay, various conceptions are entertained of the magnitude of the chance of our being freed from this obligation, by that prince taking it upon himfelf. But of that probability we cannot judge, and thall therefore only lay down what all fides muft of neceflity agree in; that its total amount, diminished by what the writers on life-annuities would call the value of the expectation of repayment, constitutes a debt upon Great Britain; yet it cannot be tions in June laft; but as it was not known what rate of intereft was to be allowed for it, we declined correcting the fum: to this is added 12,262,500l. nine tenths of the capital arifing from funding the Exchequer-bills in November last. Capital reverted to 68,365,4581. arifing from the commutation of the land tax, and flock redeemed to February 1, 1801, in which was included 507,000l. of the 4 per cents. 7,731,1821. is here added, for ftock calculated to have been purchased at the rate of about 62 per cent. during the laft eleven months of that year. Grants to the finking-fund in peace 1,200,000l. annuities for years taken in 79,880l. and for lives 20,6261. **Grants to finking-fund during the war: by taxes before February, 1801, 2,328,5461. Mr. Tierney, refolution 6th, 2,350,1621. Mr. Morgan, p. 66, 2,455,9761. the firft taken; to which are added, 124,2671. or 1 per cent. on capital of November laft, and 26,5191. life-annuities fallen in. The errors of Mr. Morgan, on the grants to the finking-fund, are of far greater confequence than any we have above ftated; his account is in three lines. After the appropriation in 1786, of 1,000,000l. he omits the annual grant, 200,000L he makes the amount of the annuities expired, 119,88ol. of thefe it is on all fides agreed, that 79,880!. were for years; thus he evidently takes them, and affumes 40,000l. as life-annuities fallen in fifteen years, or fince the formation of the finking-fund and this, in contradiction to his own, as well as all other accounts; for, in December, 1783, he ftates the amount of these annuities at 82,3171. and in the very account containing this flate of the fund, that in April, 1801, their amount was 52,7271. therefore that fallen in during feventeen years and a quarter, was 29,590l. but for fifteen years confiderably lefs; the laft article, the fund on the debt of the war, that is, the taxes compofing it, exceeds the fum given by the beft authority, 127,420l. refolution 6th, Mr. Addington; but the capital error in effect remains behind; at the time he wrote, 1,57 3,519l. intereft of capital bought up, had reverted to the flate, and this, by the -conftruction of the account, appears as an annual fum due to the public creditors. B b BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XIX. APRIL, 1802. carried carried to account, because the fubtrahend cannot be determined. In the last Table, we followed the form of Mr. Morgan's as far as our principles would admit, although with much contraction; but as that form is constructed, a great reduction of the capital took place, which cannot appear on the face of it; that of the capital of the annuities exifting in January, 1784. which amounted in the following eighteen years to 5,838,8281.* can no where have a place in it. This was effected by their attached funds, and afterwards counterbalanced by the capitals- of new annuities granted; it is notwithstanding a true addition to the capital there ftated to have been extinguifhed, although an equal fum fhould be added to that of the new-annuities, effectively balanced off by it. No traces alfo can appear in fuch a statement, of charges on account of war, provided for by debentures, occurring in the period it contains; two of this kind in the last peace were of great relative amount, and, on the old fyftem, would have been discharged by loans, in the new they were paid off by money raised for that purpofe. This obfervation we take from Mr. Rofe's brief examination of the finances in 1799, who rightly fuggefts, that the difference of capital fo caufed, fhould go to the credit of the new fyftem; and this is perfectly agreeable to that axiom of political arithmetic, as old as King and Davenant, that a Damnum ceffans is a Lucrum emergens. The charge of the Spanish armament, 3,133,000l. was of this kind; as alfo the well-deferved and juft compenfation of the American loyalifts, which was an arrear of the preceding war, of which there had been paid, on May 22, 1786, 324,6281.+ increafing the fubfequent charge given by Mr. Rofe, to 3,270,8971. the total of both is 6,403,8971. By the whole fyftem thefe fums would have been. provided for by an increase of the capital of the debt; the mean price of stock in the last peace was 72:461. at which this fum is to be taken as funded; whereby 8,837,700l. would have been added thereto; this, increafed by 5,838,820l. reduced capital of the old annuities, amounts to 14,676,520l. which being added to 76,096,6401. the fum of reverted capitals in the Table, gives the aggregate 90,773,160l. of which 84,934,340!. is the difference of capital between the old and new fyftem. It may be faid, that there are certain receipts at the end of a war, fuch for fales of prizes, balance of maintenance of prifoners, &c. &c. which might have aided in the discharge of the *See Table III. + New Annual Register, 1784-5-6, Supplies, deben debentures; but no fuch receipts exprefsly appear in the ways and means in the first years of peace, the proper place to fearch for them. Certain furplufes in the Exchequer were brought to account, which if they had been intirely formed of thefe payments, would not nearly balance the first expence of the Dutch armament, 311,7511. with the Heffian fubfidy, for fome years the true appendage thereof; added to that of our preparations against Ruffia; war expences each, and purpofely left out, as a fet-off against fuch poffible cafual receipts. We now proceed to compare the amount of the debt, as found in the Table, with that given by Mr. Morgan; he afferts that the capital of the public debt has been accumulated to the enormous mafs of 558 millions (558,111,4831.)" p. 68. To this affertion he gives a moft important place, the formal conclufion of his tract; the very place of a true fummary of refults, to be retained in memory, when the detail of particulars on which they are founded fhall be forgotten. This effectively denies the extinction of any part of the capital, by the finking-fund, or the fale of the land-tax; if no part of it had been fo paid off, this affertion would have been nearly true; but to fuppofe that the debt, fo annihilated, continues afterwards a part of the enormous accumulated mass he speaks of, is an error of no common magnitude. What man in the constant receipt and disbursement of money, who has coming in, in a given period, a thoufand pounds, and expends a hundred and fifty, was ever faid or thought to have accumulated the whole thoufand? The comparilon of Mr. M.'s process and ours, as far as yet carried, appears to ftand as follows: to the capital in our Table, 426,743,6731. that funded on the incometax is to be added, and we will join to it that debateable article, the debt of the Emperor: thus the above fum is increased to 493.631,3661. But this amount contains the balance of two particular fums, the one of charge, and the other of discharge, occurring fince Mr. Morgan wrote; the firft a new capital formed by cancelling the Exchequer-bills in November, and the fecond the stock redeemed by the finking-fund in the laft eleven months of the year; the difference of thefe is an addition of 4,692,8551. to the laft aggregate; which therefore must be reduced to 488,938,5111. to fit it for comparison with Mr. Morgan's great total, the excess of which thus appears to be 69,480,1171. the numerical error, on his own plan of account; the analyfis of which is as follows. He continues in charge, in the manner above shown, a capital of $2,281,6561. redeemed by the finking-fund at the time he wrote; and a fecond of 16,083,8021. delivered up by thofe who redeemed the tax on their lands; and Bb 2 the the third fum, 1,114,6591. is to be taken as the balance of the negative and affirmative variations of the other articles of our two accounts, frequently taken from different fources. The comparison of the fund with the outstanding debt remains to be given; we fhall first affign the balance of the great totals of the capital, and that of the finking-funds, confidered collectively as a great national affet, irrevocably bound for the payment of the former, at the beginning of the years 1784 and 1802; that fummary account will ftand as follows: Table VI. The demonftration given above, of the principle here employed to obtain the balance of the finking-fund and capital, might perhaps fuffice; but its confequences are fo great, that we thall add another, and that taken from Dr. Price. He lays it down, and very justly, that "charging the income of the finking-fund with the payment of the intereft of new loans, is an encroachment upon it no lefs fubverfive of its efficacy, than depriving it of grofs fums; there being no difference between taking from it the annual intereft of a fum, and that fum itself *:" and the converse of this, the principle on which the balance above given refts, muft of the fame neceffity be true; that there is no difference between making a permanent addition to the finking-fond equal to the intereft of a given capital, and the railing that fum at once, and employing it in the redemption of that capital; fuch fum, and the perpetual value of the yearly augment being equal, are in effect one and the famet. If we compare the fund, 6,048,000l. with the outstanding capital of the debt, 426,743,000l. we thall find that it foméwhat exceeds one feventieth part thereof. Mr. Morgan com * Rev. Payments, v. 2, p. 217. + We find we had given a proof of this very point the fame in matter, in our review of Mr. M.'s additional facts, fo long ago as March, 1797. |