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37
Sayings Banks and Provident Societies are of comparatively
recent origin. The Bank of England was not incorporated
until the year 1694, and even then there was practically no
National Debt, for this heritage, which now exceeds
£700,000,000, and involves an expenditure of something
like £30,000,000 a year, amounted to half a million only, and
was then known as the King's Debt. This debt dates from
1684, when Charles II., in the last year of his reign, charged
his revenues with interest on his borrowed money. Eight
years later Parliament authorised the raising of a million of
money from natives and foreigners, in contributions of £100
each towards carrying on the war against France, and
charged the revenue derived from certain excise duties with
the repayment thereof. From such a small beginning did the
National Debt of Great Britain spring.
The taxes on some commodities were, however, high, perhaps
relatively higher than at present; probably it was on account
of the pressure of taxation that recourse was had to the
system of raising money for state purposes by means of
lotteries. The first State lottery in England was authorized
by Parliament in the year 1694 (5 William and Mary, cap. 7),
and this means of increasing the revenue continued to form
intermittently one of the resources of the State, notwithstanding
Acts were passed at various periods for the suppression
of other descriptions of lotteries until the year
1823, when lotteries were finally abolished by law.
The most unpopular tax of the time was the" hearth
money," an impost on chimneys, which necessitated those
domiciliary visits from the assessors, so opposed to the genius of
the English. Another objection to the taxwas that it was farmed
and, consequently, harsh measures were not uncommonly
resorted to for its enforcement. There was then no Civil List,
but tho total revenue was placed almost entirely at the disposal
of the monarch for public or private purposes at his discretion.