An estimate of the comparative strength of Britain during the present and four preceding reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution ... To which is added an essay on population / by the Lord Chief Justice Hale.
- George Chalmers
- Date:
- 1782
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An estimate of the comparative strength of Britain during the present and four preceding reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution ... To which is added an essay on population / by the Lord Chief Justice Hale. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[ >32 ] recruits for the armies of Britain. Anderfon * did not negledl to notice the ufeful revifal, in 1710, of the ancient affize of bread and ale [1266] becaufe “ it was fo neceffary for our labourers and artificers, as well as for all other people.” Whatever number of lives were loft during the wars of William and Anne, it feems certain fays that induftrious compiler, “ that the manufacturers of England did irreparable damage in the mean time to the French, by robbing them of many of their beft manufactures, wherev/ith they had before fupplied almoft all Europe.” It is now equally clear, whatever it might have been formerly, that our foreign traffic was little interrupted by hoftilities ; that our navi- gation was augmented, before the return of peace, at leaft a hundred thoufand tons more than it had been at the beginning of the war, and the value of our merchandizes exported at leaft a million*. The foregoing details throw an unavoidable ridicule on the furious party-c@ntefts during the laft years of Queen Anne, in refpeCt to the condition of our commerce; as if the profperity or the decline of manufacture and trade were influenced by the liability of ftatefmen. The labourer and the failor only look for employment, the mechanic and the merchant only inquire for cuftomers, without caring who are the rulers from whom they enjoy protection, becaufe they feldom gain from the contefts of the great. Yet, we ought to remark as a weighty circumftance, which may have affeCted general induftry, and confequenlty checked univerfal population, that the fupplies granted during the reign of Queen Anne, amounted to 69,815,457. iij-. the ex- pences of the war, as they were ftated by the commiffioners for re- ceiving the public accounts, amounted to ^.65,853,799. 8^. 7^.4-*: and the national debt had fwelled, before the 31ft of December ■1714, to — — — £.50,644,306 13 on which was paid an annual intereft cf*- — £.2,811,903 10 54. The * Com. vcl. ii. p. 251. y Ander. Com. vol. il. p. 263. * See before, p. ii. * Camp. Pol. Survey, vol. ii. p. 543. Cunningham’s](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28757671_0146.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
