Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/597

1760.] Of the folly, and, worse, the wickedness, of such wars these figures stand a most awful testimony.

That the revenue of the country during this sanguinary and extravagant period rose from two to eight millions per annum is evidence of the substantial growth, notwithstanding, of the industry, capital, and resources of the country. Yet the government was driven to the imposition of many new and some singular taxes. Though the aristocracy had got rid of their feudal tenures, which amounted to a land-tax, they were soon compelled to submit to a land-tax in its own proper name. This was always granted for only a year at a time, originally of one shilling in the pound, but it rose afterwards to four shillings, was at length fixed not to exceed that on the original valuation of the land in William's time, at which it still remains, except where it has been permanently purchased by the landowner from government. In William’s reign was laid a tax on marriages; additional taxes on foreign wines; additional duties on spice, exportation of coals, and on almost all articles of foreign importation; excise on home-made liquors, tanned hides, candles, paper, pasteboard, vellum, silks, calicoes, and numerous other things. Rates of postage were raised; then stamps imposed on all sums paid with clerks and apprentices on deeds of transfer, debentures, policies of insurance, on pamphlets, advertisements, &c. In every reign of this period, these impositions grew heavier and more numerous. At the end of the reign of George II., there were thirty-eight branches of customs, twenty-eight of excise, nineteen of inland duties—in all, eighty-five different kinds of taxes. The creation of the debt had produced a numerous race of stockjobbers, and the frauds which they practised induced the government, in 1697, to pass an act "to restrain the number and ill practices of brokers and stockjobbers." Their number was not to exceed a hundred, and stringent regulations were made to defeat their fraudulent practices in selling and discounting bank-stock, bank-bills, and joint-stock shares, &c., as well as their dishonest stratagems for raising or falling the value of such stocks.



The funded debt underwent various modifications during this period. In the early part of queen Anne's reign the Bank of England and the East India Company advanced large sums, which were converted into stock, along with stock created by successive lotteries, till this stock amounted to nearly twelve millions, bearing six per cent. Then the arrears in the war and naval departments were converted into another stock of upwards of nine millions, and the holders were formed into a company called the South Sea Company, with the exclusive privilege of trading to the west coasts of America. In George I.'s reign all the different stocks were rearranged into three—namely, the South Sea Fund, established in 1711; the Aggregate Fund, in 1714; and the General Fund, in 1716. In this same year the Sinking Fund was inaugurated by Sir Robert Walpole, though planned by lord Stanhope. This fund was to consist of the surpluses of the three other funds, and to be employed in paying off gradually the debt. For some time it worked well, but the necessities of the state soon induced Sir Robert Walpole to invade its sanctity, and it speedily became a mere name. In 1720 appeared the memorable scheme by which the South Sea Company engaged to pay off the whole