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The Sources for the History of Sir Robert Walpole's Financial Administration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

The administration of Sir Robert Walpole has been treated from more than one point of view by the historical writers of a later age. The judgment passed by his contemporaries upon the statesman who was to themselves merely a protagonist of party warfare has long since been modified in several important particulars. But even after the lapse of more than two centuries since Walpole's birth, historians to whom history will always be ‘past politics’ are content to derive their estimates of his long administration from the blatant chronicles of the Whigs and Tories, or from perfunctory Blue-books, in preference to the original sources of information that are still available.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1910

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References

page 35 note 1 His reputed ancestor, Ralph de Walpole, archdeacon and bishop of Ely, had ably opposed the clerical taxation of Edward I.

page 36 note 1 Thus, counting fiscal preferments alone, we find the following appoint ments recorded: Robert, Lord Walpole, Clerk of the Pells and Auditor of the Receipt; Horatio Walpole, the elder, Secretary to the Treasury, Cofferer of the Household, and Surveyor and Auditor-General of Plantation Revenues; Horatio, the younger, Usher of the Exchequer, Comptroller of the Pipe, Clerk of the Foreign Estreats, and Inspector-General of Exports and Imports; Edward, Secretary to the Treasury, Clerk of the Pells, and Teller of the Exchequer; Geoffrey, Paymaster-General and Treasurer of Greenwich Hospital.

page 36 note 2 Gilbert, , Exchequer, pp. 261–3.Google Scholar

page 36 note 3 Ibid. pp. 247–8.

page 38 note 1 With the exception of the Parliamentary Paper on the early history of the National Debt above referred to, and the official Calendar of Treasury Records, which, however, only deals with a portion of these Records.

page 38 note 2 Maitland, , Memoranda de Parliamento (Rolls), p. xiiiGoogle Scholar, and Hall, , Studies in English Official Historical Documents, pp. 2529 and 4052.Google Scholar

page 39 note 1 These are amongst the ‘Miscellaneous Revenue Accounts’ and ‘Miscellaneous Various’ of the Treasury Records.

page 39 note 2 Namely, the Records of the Receipt Side of the Exchequer, together with the Records of the Treasury Audit Office and Board of Customs.

page 40 note 1 The ‘Public Income and Expenditure Books.’

page 41 note 1 With regard to the Sinking Fund itself, although its organisation is well known, whilst its fluctuations are probably stated correctly in the printed tables, it may be of interest to notice that a contemporary and apparently unused record of its operations still exists in the shape of certain ‘Surplus Books’ amongst the Treasury Records.

page 42 note 1 The declared Accounts of the Audit Office and Pipe Office, with their supplementary enrolments. The Accounts of Aids and Taxes are contained in a separate series of Accounts of Receivers-General amongst the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer's Records.

page 42 note 2 This is summarised in the assumption of the Committee of Enquiry in 1742 that Walpole had expended one and a half millions in Secret Service.

page 42 note 3 Treasury Accounts, Revenue, Miscellaneous, ‘Civil List,’ and ‘Secret Service’ and the ‘Public Income and Expenditure Books’ above referred to.

page 43 note 1 There is a significant admission in the Report of the Committee itself (p. 611) to the effect that shortness of time had made a careful examination of the figures submitted by the departments concerned impossible.

page 44 note 1 The Treasury returns show that at one Hampshire port alone in a single year (1723–4) 187, 116 pounds of tobacco were landed without paying duty. The officials moreover admitted that the total quantity of tobacco smuggled without detection was beyond calculation.

page 44 note 2 The gross produce of the Customs for the year 1733–4 was stated to be 2,739,334l. 2s. 9¾d., and the nett revenue was 1,303,770l. 11s. 11¾d., the difference being due to deductions for debentures, for bounties on certain commodities, for salaries and incidents, and for allowances to shippers.

page 44 note 3 The estimated value of all seizures at the ports from 1717 to 1732 was 898,182l. 7s. 8d., and the proceeds amounted to 448,260l. 16s. 5d.

page 44 note 4 Particularly by Dr. G. L. Beer. Prof. C. Hull is engaged in important researches on the same subject. An excellent theory of Walpole's policy is given in Cunningham, Industry, vol. ii. pt. i.Google Scholar

page 45 note 1 This paper was written before the author had seen an account of Prof. Wolfgang Michael's important researches in English Archives and family muniments in the Historische Zeitschrift (1909).Google Scholar Further researches have quite recently been undertaken by Mr. E. Turner of the Johns Hopkins University.