OF THE LIFE AND ADMINISTRATION OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, EARL OF ORFORD. BY WILLIAM COXE, M. A. F. R.S. F.A.S. ARCHDEACON OF WILTS. A NEW EDITION: IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER Row. 1816. MEMOIRS OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. PERIOD THE THIRD: From the South Sea Act to the Death of GEORGE I: 1720-1727. CHAPTER 19. Origin and Progress of the South Sea Company-Their Project for liquidating the National Debt-Espoused by the MinistryOpposed by Walpole-Accepted by Parliament-Walpole reconciles the King and the Prince of Wales-Forms a Coalition with Sunderland-Townshend appointed President of the CouncilWalpole Paymaster of the Forces-Retires into the Country. TH HE commencement of this period forms a memorable æra in the political life of Sir Robert Walpole, and holds him forth as the restorer of the national credit, which the fatal effects of the South Sea scheme brought to the brink of destruction. The South Sea Company owed its origin to a chimerical project, formed by Harley in 1711, for the purpose of restoring public credit, which had been greatly affected by the dismission of the Whig ministry, and of establishing a fund for discharging the navy and army debentures, and the other parts of the floating debt, which amounted to £.9,471,325; and was afterwards increased to £. 10,000,000. With a view to settle a fund for paying the interest of 6 per cent. on these arrears, which required the annual sum of £.568,279, all the duties upon wines, vinegar, tobacco, India goods, wrought silks, whale fins, and a few others were rendered permanent. To allure the creditors with the hope of advantage from a new commerce, the monopoly of a trade to the South Sea, or coast of Spanish America, was granted to a company composed of the proprietors of this funded debt, which being incorporated by act of parliament, took the appellation of the South Sea Company.* The great benefits to be derived from this commerce, had been exaggerated from the time of our first voyages to Spanish America, in the reign of Elizabeth, and still farther increased by the reports of the buccaneers. The considerable riches which France had brought from America, since the establishment of Philip the Fifth on the throne of Spain had contributed to raise the sanguine expectations of the British merchants; a rumour, industriously circulated, that four ports on the coasts of Peru and Chili, * James Postlethwayt's Historical State of the South Sea Company-Anderson on Commerce, vol. 3. p. 43.-Tindal, vol. 17. p. 361. were to be ceded by Spain, inflamed the general ardour; the prospect of exchanging gold, silver, and rich drugs for the manufactures of England, were plausible allurements for an enterprising and commercial nation; and the mines of Potosi and Mexico, were to diffuse their inexhaustible stores through the medium of the new company. The famous act of parliament, which incorpo rated the subscribers of the debts, under the name of the governor and company of merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, was called the earl of Oxford's master piece, and considered by his panegyrists as the sure means of bringing an inexhaustible mine of riches into England. But in fact this scheme was settled on a false foundation; for by the peace of Utrecht, Spain and the Indies being confirmed to Philip the Fifth, that monarch was too jealous to admit the English to a free trade in the South Sea, and instead of the advantageous commerce which Oxford had held forth, the company obtained only the assiento contract, or the privi lege of supplying the Spanish colonies of America with negroes for 30 years, with the permis sion of sending to Spanish America an annual ship, limited both as to tonnage and value of cargo, of the profits of which the king of Spain reserved one fourth, and five per cent. on the other fourthst. This disappointment was at tempted to be counteracted by the declaration ** Assiento is a Spanish word, signifying a firm or contrast. † Anderson, vol. 3. page 55. 1 |