120 PARLIAMENTARY COLBERTISM 
customs!. When the Long Parliament declared them de- 
linquents for their action under the personal government 
they got into serious trouble?; but the same practice was 
of borrow-_ continued by Parliament. Charles II. habitually relied on 
i rion af advances from the Goldsmiths; and even the stop of the 
paipsiar ; Exchequer in 1672, by which the repayment of moneys 
revenue; ~ lent to the Government on the assignment of taxes was 
indefinitely deferred®, did not put an end® to a practice 
which the Commons viewed with much suspicion. But 
the demands of William IIL could not be met by such 
expedients; the sums required were so large, as to exceed 
the proceeds of any possible taxation. As the accustomed 
security for the money lent was not forthcoming, borrowing 
in anticipation of revenue became more and more difficult. 
Attempts were made to procure the necessary supplies by 
Tontines and Life Annuities, and subsequently by the issue 
of Exchequer Bills’. The proceeds thus obtained proved 
comparatively small, however; and the immediate success 
md the attained, when the Bank of England was actually floated and 
oy the necessary capital subscribed, came as an immense relief 
yg to the Government, which was in terrible straits for want 
i of money. The State obtained £1,200,000, without giving 
command any security for the return of the principal, and by merely 
providing for the regular payment of £100,000 as interest. 
This scheme, the credit of which appears to be due to 
William Paterson®. was attractive to those persons with 
A.D. 1689 
—1776. 
1 He does not appear to have been able to repay these advances. On Charles’s 
alleged breach of faith in regard to the money of English merchants, see Robinson 
in Shaw, Select Tracts and Documents illustrative of English Monetary History, 56. 
2 The Long Parliament fined the farmers £150,000 as delinquents, for collecting 
the revenue on regal authority (Commons Journals. m. 156, 157). 
8 Commons Journals, mi. 2. 
% The possibility of dispensing with these advances and thus saving interest 
was one of the advantages which led Killigrew to advocate the erection of a Bank 
in 1663. A Proposal, p. 5. 
8 Shaw, The Beginnings of the National Debt. in Owens College Historical 
Essays, 391. 
6 Compare Mr Chisholm's Notices of the various forms of Public Debt, in 
Accounts and Papers, 1857-8, XXXIII. m8. pag. 247, printed pag. 92. 
7 See below, 441. Power to issue these bills, bearing interest at 54. per cent. 
per diem, was given by 8 and 9 W. IIL. c. 20, §§ 63, 64. 
8 Andréadds, Histoire de la Banque d Angleterre, 1. 82. The failure of Paterson's 
sther oreat project—the Darien scheme—ruined the reputation of this remarkable