COMPENDIUM ENGLISH AND FOREIGN FUNDS, AND THB PRINCIPAL JOINT STOCK COMPANIES, AN EPITOME or THB VARIOUS OBJECTS OF INVESTMENT NEGOTIABLE IN LONDON; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OP THE INTERNAL DEBTS AND REVENUES OP THE POREIGN STATES, AND TABLES FOR CALCULATING THE VALUE OP THE DIFFERENT STOCKS, ETC. BY CHARLES FENN. LONDON : SHERWOOD, GILBERT, AND PIPER, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1837. R. ALFORD, PRINTER, , Bridge Street, Southwark. I N D E X. Page. American finances . 45 St.itr Stnrlr" 50 Joint Stock Comp^Tii°s 163 Annuities for Terms of Years 18 Assurance Companies 93 Austria 57 Bank of England . 101 Ireland 117 119 Banks, Joint Stock, Country 108 1 London 115 Irish . 117 Scotch 119 Colonial . 121 American 163, 174 Belgium 57 Brazil 59 Bridges 125 Buenos Ayres 59 Canada 60 Canals, English 126 , American 167 Carlist Loan 91 Chile 60 Colombia • • • .61,171 Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt . 5 Consols 14 Cuba 62 Dead Weight Annuity 18 Debt of Great Britain and Ireland , on the 5th of Januar h 1837 20 Denmark 63 Docks 133 East India Company 149 Exchequer Bills 17 Expectation of Life 39 Foreign Funds 45 France 65 INDEX. Page. Gas Companies 135 Greece 72 Guadalaxara 73 Guatemala 73 Holland 74 Irish Funds 16 Land Companies 136 Life Annuities 18 Long Annuities IS Mexico 77 Mines 138 Miscellaneous Companies 154 Naples .78,172 National Debt of England 1 New Granada 61 New 3£ per Cents. 15 New 5 per Cents. 15 Peru 80 Portugal 80 Poyais 83 Prussia 84 Railways, English 140, 173 , American 168 Reduced 3 per Cents. 14 3J per Cents. 15 Regulations observed at the National Debt Office 24 Relative value of the British Funds 30 Revenue and Expenditure of Great Britain .42,171 Russia 84 Sinking Fund 5 South Sea Company 3,153 Stocks 15 Spain 85 Stocks, English 14 , Foreign 45 Three per Cents., 1726 14 Consols 14 Reduced 14 Three and a Half per Cents., 1818 14 Reduced 15 Transfer Regulations, Government Funds 23 , Joint Stock Companies 155 Unfunded Debt 16 Venezuela 62 Waterworks 148 AN EPITOME ENGLISH AND FOREIGN FUNDS, &c. PUBLIC DEBT OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. The National Debt at the period of the Revolution in 1688 amounted to about £660,000, principally in the form of terminable annuities, specially charged upon certain branches of the revenue. The system of borrow ing money on annuities for terms of years and lives, was continued by government for several years subsequent to this period, until the magnitude of the public debt, and the heavy charge thus created, rendered the method no longer practicable. It was during the war with France in which this country engaged at the time of the revolution, and which continued for a period of nearly ten years, that the foundation of the present national debt was laid. In the year 1690 the sum of £750,000 was borrowed for the purpose of prosecuting the war in Ireland, the time of re-payment was limited to three years, and the pro duce of certain branches of the public revenue was set apart for this purpose ; but the war still continuing, the revenue was found insufficient to meet the increased expenditure, and the government was compelled to raise money upon annuities, and by the issue of exchequer A 2 PUBLIC DEBT OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. tallies and orders ; the rate of interest was extremely high, annuities being frequently granted for 99 years, at 15 years' purchase. In 1694 the sum of £1,200,000 was borrowed of the Bank of England, at 8 per cent. interest, and it was stipulated that the lenders should not require the re-payment of the money daring the continuance of the charter then granted by the legisla ture ; this was the first approach to the present system of funding or borrowing money on interminable an nuities. The war having been brought to a close in 1697, the national debt was found to amount to £20,000.000, and the revenue was deficient the sum of £5,000,000 ; at this time, from the irregularity with which the interest upon the floating debt was paid, ex chequer tallies and orders were at a discount of 40 per cent., and government, to redeem the credit of the nation as well as to provide for the deficiency of the revenue, were obliged to contract a further debt, and to fund a portion of the floating securities. In the following year, 1698, the New East India Company advanced to govern ment, at 8 per cent. interest, the sum of £2,000,000, in consideration of certain privileges granted to the corpo ration ; this debt and that due to the Bank of England, were nearly the whole of the public liabilities which con sisted of interminable annuities, the remainder of the debt being in the form of annuities for lives and for a fixed term of years : the terminable annuities gradually expiring effected a reduction in the amount of the public debt, which at the close of this reign in 1 702 was about £16,000,000, taking the terminable annuities at a valu ation, the annual charge for interest and annuities being £1,300,000. The return of war, on the accession of Queen Anne, brought with it an increased expenditure to the country, and a consequent addition to the public debt ; various expedients were resorted to in order to raise money, and the terms of the loans appear to have been but little regarded ; life annuities, and annuities for fixed terms, PUBLIC DEBT OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 3 tontines, and lotteries were the means most frequently made use of in order to provide the necessary supplies for the exigences of the state. The financial embarrass ment of the nation led to the establishment of the South Sea Company in the year 1711, after the war had con tinued for nine years, this association was projected with the avowed intention of carrying on trading intercourse with the South Seas, and the North West Coast of America, but its chief object appears to have been to assist the government in its financial operations : the various government obligations outstanding at this period, amounted to about £9,000,000, which from the pecuniary difficulties of the nation, had borne little or no interest, and were consequently at a heavy discount; the South Sea Company were empowered to receive these obligations as subscriptions for stock in the com pany, and were thus constituted the chief creditors of the state — the amount of stock thus created was £9,471,325, which was increased in 1715 to £10,000,000, by the addition of certain arrears of interest to the capital stock ; for this sum the company received 6 per cent. interest, and £8,000 per annum for the expenses of management. At the close of the reign of Queen Anne in 1714, the public debt had increased to upwards of £52,000,000, bearing an annual charge for interest and annuities of £3,350,000. Of this the permanent debt was about £21,000,000, the unfunded obligations about £5,000,000, and the temporary annuities were valued at about £26,000,000. In the year 1717, the interest on part of the perma nent debt was reduced from 6 to 5 per cent., and a regular sinking fund was provided by Act of Parliament, (3 Geo. I., c. 7) for the redemption of the permanent debt ; by the former operation an annual saving was effected of £328,560, but very little appears to have been accomplished by the action of the sinking fund, although the falling in of annuities effected a trifling 4 PUBLIC DEBT OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. reduction, the national debt at the close of the reign of George I., amounting to about £2,000,000 less than at the conclusion of the previous reign ; the annual charge was considerably diminished by the reduction of interest in 1717, and by a further reduction from 5 per cent. to 4 per cent. in 1727, at the end of which year the annual charge was £2,217,551. In the peace which prevailed during the greater part of the interval from 1727 to 1739, upwards of £5,000,000 of the debt was discharged by the operation of the sink ing fund, and the falling in of temporary annuities. On the 31st of December in the latter year it amounted to about £47,000,000, whereof about forty millions con stituted the permanent debt, and the remainder consisted of terminable annuities and unfunded securities ; the annual charge was about £1,960,000. From the year 1739, the national debt received vast additions annually, for several years ; the disturbed state of this country owing to the landing of Charles Edward Stuart in 1745, and the war in which the nation engaged in 1740, in support of the Queen of Hungary's preten sions to the throne of Austria, involved the government necessarily in very large expenses ; the debt on the 31st of December 1749, soon after the treaty of peace concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle, amounted to above £76,000,000, being an increase during the war of £29,000,000. In the short interval of peace which succeeded the treaty of 1748, the government was enabled by the rise in the price of stocks to effect a reduction of interest on the 4 per cents., this was done on the 29th of November, 1749, the stock-holders were to receive 4 per cent. until the 25th of December, 1750, from that time till the 25th of December, 1757, they were to be allowed 3£ per cent., after which time the interest was to be reduced to 3 per cent.