A.D. 1689 
—1776. 
and 
changed 
the centre 
of gravity 
in the 
State : 
h12 PARLIAMENTARY COLBERTISM 
monarchical responsibility. It had long been notorious, too, 
‘hat the possession of wealth gave the command of power?; 
the concentration of wealth in the hands of the Directors of 
the Bank enabled them to exercise an economic influence; 
the resources at their command were not exceeded by the 
sums which the King could control; it was hardly too 
much to say that the Bank overbalanced the Crown as a 
power in the State. Hitherto the continuity of the govern. 
ment had depended chiefly on the succession to the throne; 
and there were possibilities of violent reaction with each 
new accession; but the existence of the Bank gave an 
important guarantee for the maintenance of the same 
general principles of rule under any monarch; national bank- 
ruptey, rather than the dangers of disputed succession to the 
Crown, became an object of dread. The Bank proved itself 
to be compatible with monarchy, only because the monarchy 
was now greatly limited by the provisions of the constitution® 
Hence it came about that the moneyed men, whose pro- 
sperity was involved in the maintenance of credit, were 
intensely afraid of the return of the Stuarts, and lent 
the whole of their influence to the Whig party and the 
Hanoverian succession. They were thus in a position® to 
expect that attention should be paid to their views on 
economic questions, during the period of Whig ascendancy, 
and they were not disappointed. 
The foundation of the Bank of England was by far the 
most striking incident of the period, in the economic history 
of the country internally. We have seen, during the seven- 
teenth century, the importance of new opportunities for the 
1 This Aristotelian principle is applied to the internal affairs of modern 
countries by Harington in his Oceana. He traced a connection between the 
distribution of wealth and the distribution of power within any country. His 
treatise was suggested by considering the changes (Toland's Life, prefixed to 
Harington’s Works (1787), p. xvii} of property and power which had occurred 
since the time of Henry VII. The rise of a moneyed class, in the latter part 
of this period, with the rivalry between the landed and moneyed interest which 
snsued, is an interesting illustration of his principle. In accordance with re- 
oublican doctrines, to which he was strongly attached, it followed that a wide 
Jistribution of wealth was a necessary condition for good popular government 
[Harington’s Works (1737), 78], so that the possessions of the many might over- 
balance those of the few. 
3 Addison, Spectator, March 3, 1711. 
3 Compare the influence of moneyed citizens under Richard IT. Vol. 1. p. 381.