Of this fum there were iffued for carrying on the war £. 3,666,430 For paying the civil list the intereft of loans 589,981 430,307 The taxes, which were annually levied on the people, during the prefent reign, may be calcu lated from the nett fums paid into the exchequer in the years 1707-8-9-10, amounting yearly to £. 5,272,758. This gives us an idea fufficiently precife of the pecuniary powers, which could then be exerted by Britain. But the military operations of the government were more extenfive than the annual fupplies of the parliament: So that before Christmas 1711, unfunded debts were contracted to the amount of £. 9,471,325. This fum was then too large, as it is faid, to be bor rowed at any rate. The public creditors agreed to convert their claims into a capital, at a fpecified intereft, with charges of management. And here is the origin of the South Sea Company, and South Sea Stock, which, whatever help they now brought with them, in after times, were perverted to very distressful projects. Mr. Aftle's Tranfcript. The The fupplies granted, during the prefent reign, amounted to £.69,815,457. 11s. 3 d. The expences of the war, as they were stated by the commiffioners of public accounts, amount£.65,853,799. 8s. 7 d.* ed to And the national debt fwelled, before the 31st December 1714, to £.50,644,306. 13s. 64d.; on which was paid an intereft of † £.2,811,903. 10s. 51d. and which were all more than counterbalanced by the legislative encouragements, that were given, in this reign, to domeftic industry and foreign trade. The furplus produce of our land and labour, which was yearly exported, had mean time risen to £.6,045,432; a circumftance, which equally evinces, that we had not yet much to fpare, and confequently no vaft remittance, which could be annually fent abroad for carrying on the war. The tonnage of English fhips, which, from time to time, tranfported this cargo, and which, at that epoch, formed the principal nursery for the royal navy, had increased to - 273,693 tons; this shipping must have been navigated, if we allow twelve men to 4 every two hundred tons, by 16,422 failors. By an enumeration of the trading veffels of England, in January 1701, it appeared, that Camp. Pol. Survey, vol. ii. p. 543. + Hift. of Debt, p. 80; which gives a particular statement. A detail in the Plantation-office. ( London hade 84,882 tons, 261,222; and that they were navigated by 16,471 men, and 120 boys, or 16,591 failors. The inconfiderable difference between the enumerated tonnage and mariners, and the tonnage and mariners cleared at the custom-house, only marks, that several ships had entered more than once, and that a greater number of men were then allowed to every veffel than there are now; whence we may infer, that the calculation and the enumeration prove the accuracy of each other. The royal navy, which in 1695 had carried had mouldered before 1704* tó Tons. Men. 112,000 and 45,000, An admiralty-lift of all her Majefty's fhips and veffels in fea-pay, at home and abroad, on the 27th of February 1703-4 with the highest complement of men, and the numbers borne, mustered, and wanting. [From the Paper-office.] Wanting Its real force will, however, more clearly ap pear from the following detail* : Ships of the line employ Such then was the augmented strength of the nation under Queen Anne. Let us now enquire into the loffes of our trade, during her glorious, but unproductive, war. The effort of the belligerent powers was made chiefly by land; and the foreign trade of England feems to have rather languifhed, than to have been overpowered, as it had been, for a season, during the preceding conteft. Let us examine the following proofs: Years. 1700 2 1705 } Ships cleared outwards. Value of cargoes. £. 273,693 - 43,635 - 317,328 - 6,045,432 5,308,966 1709 243,693 - 45,625 - 289,318 - 5,913,357 1711 266,047 - 57,890 - 323,937 - 5,962,988 1712 326,620 - 29,115 - 355,735 - 6,868,840 Philips's State of the Nation, p. 35. The The revenue of the poft-office, on an average of the four last years of William, yielded nett Ditto of the four first years of the war £.82,319 61,568 Thus, the year 1705 marked the lowest ftage of the depreffion of commerce, during Queen Anne's wars; whence it gradually rofe till 1712, the last year of hoftilities, when our navigation and traffic had gained a manifeft fuperiority over those of any former period of peace. Let us behold the rebound of this mighty fpring, when the return of tranquillity had removed every preffure, by contrasting the average of the ships cleared outwards, and of the value of their cargoes, during the three peaceful years preceding the war, with both, during the three years immediately fol lowing the treaty of Utrecht. |