DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22140#0092
76 INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL HISTORY.
in negro slaves with the Spanish Plantations, under what is known
in history as the Assiento treaty. Not a little of the debt was in
annuities granted for life or terms of years. Some was a floating
debt renewed in the form of Exchequer bills, and generally put
into circulation through the Bank. Now in itself the system was
cumbrous and wasteful. Wealth had been rapidly growing
through the trade of London, and no doubt while Walpole was
still in the Ministry he had ventilated those projects of his for
consolidating the public debt which he was in after years to
mature. But Walpole had been ejected from office in 1717, and
Avas succeeded by Stanhope, who gave way to Sunderland, under
whom were Aislabie, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Craggs,
Secretary of State.
Now in order to effect this change, it seemed obvious that one
or the other of the great chartered companies, the Bank of
England or the South Sea Company, should undertake the com-
mission. The East India Company was out of the question. Now
the Bank regularly paid its shareholders 8 per cent., the South Sea 6,
and the ordinary price of the two stocks was 140 to 150 for the
Bank, 105 to no for the South wSea. The two companies bid for
the bargain, and the South Sea osfered to transact the affair for
less than the Bank thought prudent. It is doubtful whether
it was wise to allow a trading or banking company to ingraft so
enormous a stock on its capital as more than thirty millions
additional, and imperfect as the knowledge of finance was at
the time, I think it very doubtful whether, had Walpole been in
office, he would have lent himself to the negotiation. For the
business was exceedingly complicated by the vast quantity of debt
which was secured to annuitants, and it would certainly be unsuc-
cessful unless the annuitants were persuaded to accept the value of
their interest in some stock or the other, or cash could be found
to pay them osf at a fair valuation.
Now how was the South Sea Company to effect this result.
They had a trade, it is true, which the Spanish Government strove
to curtail within the narrowest limits, the South Sea Company to
expand. One would have thought, after the experience of the
Mississippi scheme in France the year before, that the prospects
of the American trade would have been seriously discounted.
in negro slaves with the Spanish Plantations, under what is known
in history as the Assiento treaty. Not a little of the debt was in
annuities granted for life or terms of years. Some was a floating
debt renewed in the form of Exchequer bills, and generally put
into circulation through the Bank. Now in itself the system was
cumbrous and wasteful. Wealth had been rapidly growing
through the trade of London, and no doubt while Walpole was
still in the Ministry he had ventilated those projects of his for
consolidating the public debt which he was in after years to
mature. But Walpole had been ejected from office in 1717, and
Avas succeeded by Stanhope, who gave way to Sunderland, under
whom were Aislabie, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Craggs,
Secretary of State.
Now in order to effect this change, it seemed obvious that one
or the other of the great chartered companies, the Bank of
England or the South Sea Company, should undertake the com-
mission. The East India Company was out of the question. Now
the Bank regularly paid its shareholders 8 per cent., the South Sea 6,
and the ordinary price of the two stocks was 140 to 150 for the
Bank, 105 to no for the South wSea. The two companies bid for
the bargain, and the South Sea osfered to transact the affair for
less than the Bank thought prudent. It is doubtful whether
it was wise to allow a trading or banking company to ingraft so
enormous a stock on its capital as more than thirty millions
additional, and imperfect as the knowledge of finance was at
the time, I think it very doubtful whether, had Walpole been in
office, he would have lent himself to the negotiation. For the
business was exceedingly complicated by the vast quantity of debt
which was secured to annuitants, and it would certainly be unsuc-
cessful unless the annuitants were persuaded to accept the value of
their interest in some stock or the other, or cash could be found
to pay them osf at a fair valuation.
Now how was the South Sea Company to effect this result.
They had a trade, it is true, which the Spanish Government strove
to curtail within the narrowest limits, the South Sea Company to
expand. One would have thought, after the experience of the
Mississippi scheme in France the year before, that the prospects
of the American trade would have been seriously discounted.