View report page

38
The revenue of Charles II. was about one million three
hundred thousand pounds per annum, but this did not suffice
to defray the expenses of the Court and Kingdom, and at the
death of the King there was an accumulation of deficiencies
in the form of a floating debt of about half a million, bearing
interest at the rate of from six to eight per cent. Up to that
time the burden of taxation was slight compared with that of
France and some other continental nations, and had not
pressed with any very great hardship upon the people, while
the wealth of the country had enormously increased since the
Restoration. According to Sir Josiah Child, there were on
change more men worth ten thousand pounds in 1688 than
there were in 1650 worth one thousand, and at the earlier
date gentlewomen considered themselves well clad in a serge
gown which a chambermaid forty years later was ashamed to
be seen in. Unquestionably the circumstances of the more
wealthy classes were becoming more comfortable, for many
writers agree that at this period the number of coaches had
increased very rapidly.
Additional taxation in the year 1685 augmented the revenue
to nearly two millions a year, which, calculating the population
of the United Kingdom at a little over four millions (though
scarcely any data exist for a really accurate estimate) would
give an average taxation of something less than ten shillings
per head, or considerably less than the taxes now levied.
Against the apparent increase since that period, however,
must be set the enormous growth of the country, and the
improvement which has taken place in the conditions of all
classes of the community in the meantime. While, however,
taxation was not particularly burdensome, the poor rate
throughout the country was already becoming oppressive, and
it is estimated that at least twenty (some authorities say
twenty-five) per cent. of the entire population of England
were in receipt of parochial relief in some form or other.