s year (1694) to over L5,000.(1799)

(M906)

This loan was but as a drop in the ocean compared with the necessities of
the times. The estimates for the year 1694 were enormous. The army, which
was already the largest standing force that England had ever seen, was to
receive a large increase, whilst considerable sums of money were required
for payment of arrears, no less than for the future expenses, of the navy.
Notwithstanding the renewal of the land tax, the imposition of a poll-tax,
the revival of stamp duties, and the raising of a million of money by a
lottery loan, there yet remained a large deficit before the estimated
revenue of the year balanced the estimated expenditure. At this juncture
Charles Montague, poet, politician and _savant_, took up a scheme
propounded to government three years before by William Paterson, an
enterprising if not always successful Scotsman, but allowed to drop. This
scheme was none other than the formation of a national bank. The idea was
not altogether a new one. Before the close of the reign of Charles II
several plans of the kind had been suggested, some being in favour of
establishing such a bank under the immediate direction of the Crown,
whilst others were of opinion that its management should be entrusted to
the Corporation of the city. It was now proposed to raise the sum of
L1,200,000 for the use of the government by way of loan at eight per cent.
interest, the subscribers being incorporated by the name of the Governor
and Company of the Bank of England. The matter was introduced into
parliament for the first time on the 28th March, in the shape of a Bill
for granting their majesties certain tonnage duties on wine, ale and other
liquors.(1800) Although it was not easy to recognise in the terms of the
Bill the germ of "the greatest commercial institution that the world had
ever seen,"(1801) it met with considerable opposition in the House, and
still more outside. With their recent experience of the evils arising from
a rich and powerful body like the East India Company, men were cautious in
allowing a Corporation to be erected in their midst which, as many feared,
would absorb the wealth of the nation,(1802) and might render the Crown
independent of parliament and people. This last consideration was not
unimportant, and, in order to avert the possibility of such a danger, a
clause was inserted in the Bill forbidding under the severest penalties
the new Corporation advancing mon