PERMANENT ANNUITIES 419
trading and industrial classes in the Lowlands found that, A.D. 1689
during the period of Whig ascendancy, their political ie.
3 . though the
principles had the upper hand, and that the economic wnat
maxims, which were influential at Westminster, were most Tools haw
favourable to their own material interests. Since 1707 the
fiscal and economic affairs of the whole island have been
effectively controlled from one centre; and under the Parlia-
ment of Great Britain, Scotland has been stimulated into
developing a vigorous economic life, which is moreover re-
markably independent of that of the southern kingdom.
XII, PuBrLic FINANCE.
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213. Attention has been directed above to the profound iv a
political significance of the formation of the Bank of England, tke Bank
. . . . . supers:
and to its bearing on the authority of a constitutional mon- thy wractice
arch. The changes in business practice it brought about and
the stimulus it gave to trade were important, but the main
motive of its founders lay in the fact that they had devised
a new expedient in finance?. The Bank rendered public
borrowing much less onerous than it had ever been before?
The Kings of England had been in the habit, from time
immemorial, of borrowing in anticipation of the taxes, and
obtaining money for immediate use by guaranteeing re-
payment when certain forms of revenue were collected.
Charles I. had been deeply indebted to the farmers of the
1 See p. 411 above.
® The Bank of Genoa had been called into existence in 1407 to finance the
State debts, and its fonndation was in some way analogous to that of the Bank of
England. The Banks of Venice (1587) and Amsterdam (1609) were called into
being to meet commercial rather than political requirements.
8 For its influence on the currency and the trading community see below,
p- 442. There was little that was original in the project, as many similar schemes
had been proposed; but none of them had taken practical shape. One of the
earliest was that of Christopher Hagenbuck in 1581 (5.P.D. El or. 78). Compare
algo Sir Paul Pindar’s letter, 4 Discourse concerning the erecting a Bank for the
Crown upon occasion of the King's demanding a Loan from the City (Brit. Maus.
Lans. M88. cv. 90); also Sir Robert Heath's project in 1622 (S. P. D. J. I.
CXxx. 29, 31, 82). 'W. Potter suggested a land bank, under the Commonwealth
(Humble Proposals, 1651). Sir John Sinclair mentions 4 Description of the Office
of Credit (1665) and the Proposals to the King and Parliament of a large Model
of a Bank. by M. Lewis (1678). History of the Public Revenue, 111, 237.
27 —9
