September 6, 2011

A Promise to Pay - the spread of banknotes in the 18th Century

Counterfeit Bank Notes chiefly of £5. Known by the coarseness of the paper. The Water mark clumsily executed with the figures 35 in the corner (?) which appears to be done with something that cut a part of the 3 in two. Most of them Entered P Casely C Jacks Signed – dated Feb 16, 1798. Others are entered C Jacks & signed W George

War with France towards the end of the Eighteenth Century coincided with a drastic shortage of both gold and silver. The country operated on a dual gold and silver standard, fixing the relative value of the two metals as being 1:20. The shortage of gold and silver meant that the Bank of England were forced to issue paper money for comparatively low values, albeit with the statement "Bank of England Promise to pay on demand the sum of £--" to reassure bearers that they could (at least in theory) exchange the notes for the precious metal at the Bank of England.

It meant that for the first time the general public came into contact with bank notes - previously the notes were for huge amounts which were never intended for general use. The banknotes from 1725 were issued for amounts of £20, £25, £30 and upwards to £100 in £10 stages; then in multiples of £100 up to £500. The highest denomination note was for £1000. These notes from 1725 onwards were partially printed - in other words leaving the name of the payee, date, amount and cashier’s signature to be filled in by hand. In 1759 the first £10 and £15 notes appeared. Watermarks had long been used on Bank of England notes, and an early feature was the metallic strip. Unlike modern notes with their 'windowed thread' these early strips were buried in the paper while it was being made. The actual paper was of a special quality, and early paper manufacturing was centred on the River Test in Hampshire. It was at Bere Mill near Overton that in 1724 the Huguenot exile Henri de Portal started to supply paper to the Bank of England, a tradition carried on by his son Joseph Portal at Laverstoke Mill.

In 1793, with the onset of war with France, £5 notes came on the scene and four years later this was followed by notes having a denomination of £2 and £1 which meant that at that stage there were no fewer than 19 different notes in use! The appearance of the low denomination notes meant that gradually more of the general public had to come to terms with paper money, but banknotes were easy to counterfeit as many of their new owners were illiterate and not used to handling notes. This therefore is the background to Richard’s warning about forgeries.

Gillray captured the public fear about banknotes with a series of cartoons dating from 1797 (Gillray drawings courtesy of the Lancashire Gallery http://www.lancashiregallery.co.uk/ )

"Bank-notes, - paper-money, - French-alarmists, - o, the devil, the devil! - ah! poor John Bull!!!"

"Political-Ravishment, or The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street in danger!"

First published, May 1797. A thin, elderly woman wearing a dress comprised of one-pound notes, throws up her arms in alarm as William Pitt embraces her with his right hand and takes guineas from her pocket with his left.

Postscript: And the million pound note, as featured in the film starring Gregory Peck? There never was one - this is a spoof!

June 28, 2011

Taxes, taxes everywhere! (to say nothing of the contents of the leaking cess pit...)

This serves as an example of just how many taxes there were which could be levied against you if you owned a property in London. It is not dated but as it makes no mention of the dreaded Income Tax, it is likely to be shortly before 1799. It refers to Window Lights - presumably the Window Tax introduced in 1696 and which was only finally abolished in 1851. There must have been a lot of windows since the tax was levied in two parts - a flat rate of two shillings per house plus a sliding scale based upon the number of windows. Rather a lot of windows in fact, reflecting the fact that One London Bridge was on a corner site with windows on all sides.

It seems odd that Richard included "Afternoon Preacher" as a tax but perhaps he regarded it as such because he felt he had no choice but to pay it! The same is true of the annual subscription payable to the Haberdashers Guild.

The Trophy Tax was levied every three years to defray the expense of raising the men to serve in the Militia of the City of London, plus incidental expenses such as accommodation for the militiamen.

As for Orphan Tax, Church Rates and Poors Rate these reflect the burden on each parish of looking after the poor. There is this on the pages of www.parliament.uk :

"The problem of poverty caused growing public concern during the early 19th century. The existing system for looking after those unable to care for themselves - the old, sick, disabled, orphans and unemployed - was based on a series of Acts of Parliament passed during the later Tudor period. These laws imposed an obligation on every parish to take care of its poor, though this had much less to do with compassion than with the need to preserve order and stability.

By the end of the 1790s there were clear signs that the system was under severe strain. Increasing numbers of parish poor were seeking assistance and the cost to ratepayers of maintaining the system was rising alarmingly, especially as payments were linked to the rising costs of bread and the size of families.

A parliamentary inquiry in 1777 noted that there were 1,916 workhouses in England which housed some 90,000 paupers."

Thames Water at One pound two shillings a year presumably covered the cost of drawing water from the Thames alongside One London Bridge (just imagine the pollution!) and Sewer Rate at £0/14/4 was paid even though in practice the premises were served by a cess pit constructed underneath the cellars. They leaked - often, judging by Richard's accounts! The tax would therefore have been over and above what he had to pay for "repairs to the Privy". In 1793 these amounted to over sixteen pounds ("jobb at the Privy, paid to Mr Poynder, plumber, for Grate at the Privy, Carpenter...ditto, case to lead pipe").

The year before Richard had paid out one guinea in support of "a petition to the Commissioners" asking for the sewers to be taken over at public expense but until that happened Richard would presumably have needed to avail himself of the services of a nightman - someone to come at night, when the shop was closed to customers and all good people were a-bed, in order to empty the overflowing cess pit by hand, using barrels. The procedure is set out on the handbill of one Richard Harper (courtesy of the British Museum).

The poor son - he would have been the unfortunate blighter who had to be lowered into the pit to fill the barrels.....the contents were then taken away to the market gardens of Peckham and beyond, and scattered on the land as "night soil", in other words, as a fertilizer.

Anyone like to have some more local-grown salad - it's organic, don't you know!

April 13, 2011

Income Tax

Paying for the war with France led to the introduction of the iniquitous Income Tax at the end of the 18^th Century. Richard was appalled – not just because it would mean that he would have to pay extra tax but because it was bad for business – his customers would have up to ten per cent less money in their pockets to spend in his shop! He wrote detailed notes about what we would now call this ‘double whammy’.

Richard also recorded the taxation details:

The intention is to exempt from its operation all incomes under £200 per annum. Those amounting to £200 and under £250 – two per cent

From £250 to £300 – 2 ½ %

From £300 to £350 – 3%

From £350 to £400 – 3 ½ %

From £400 to £450 - 4%

From £450 to £500 - 4 ½ %

From £500 to £550 – 5%

From £550 to £600 - 5 ½ %

From £600 to £650 - 6%

From £650 to £700 – 6 ½ %

From £700 to £750 - 7%

From £750 to £800 - 7 ½ %

£1000 and upwards - 10%

Richard’s account book for 1799 shows that “the newly assessed tax” was

paid that year by means of seven instalments of half a guinea each plus two payments of the old Window Tax (totalling just under five pounds for the year). There were six instalments of income tax at Five guineas a throw in the 1799 calendar year i.e a total of £31/10/- (the equivalent in modern monetary terms of perhaps £1000). He also had to pay “Armorial Bearing Tax “ i.e. for the privilege of using a Coat of Arms – two instalments in the year giving another £2.50 in tax.

He continued to pay income tax in bi-monthly instalments for the rest of his

life – hence he notes:

Taxes 1801

Feb 10^th :- Paid the 5th Installment of the Income Tax due ye 5^th Instant

£5.5.0.

April 7^th Paid the 6^th Installment of of the Income Tax due ye 5^th Instant

£5.5.0.

Disregarding the other taxes, an income tax bill of just over thirty pounds a year would appear to show Richard was being taxed at five and a half per cent – i.e. that his total income was between £550 and £600 per year. Not bad considering that he had already passed across to his children the income from his lands and estate at Bengeworth in Worcestershire. Also, we know his household expenses were fractionally above £100 per annum, so he lived well within his means.

For Richard it must still have been quite a shock to the system - his tax bill was traditionally double what he spent each year on wine. Suddenly his tax bill increased tenfold - but as Richard died in 1801 there is no record as to whether his wine consumption went up 'in sympathy' or was reduced by way of compensation!

February 16, 2011

Costs and wages in the 18th Century

One of the interesting things about the accounts and diaries kept by my family is the record of very minor expenses. These figures are a snap-shot from the mid-1770's:

Wages and matters agricultural.

(courtesy of the diaries of William Snooke):

Rat catcher (one of the Sawyers) stuff 5^s.4^d. - work 2^s.8^d. total 8^s.(1775)

Gard'ner (Thos. Paine) 28 days work at 1^s.6^d.- two Guineas.

Driving the bull to Burford (J Smith) 1^s.6^d. (1775).

Sarah Clifford (one year, less victuals) £4/12/0

Edward Edmunds for hedging (0ne year) £2/5/9 ½^d.

Throwing out snow (1775) paid to R Palmer 12^s.8^d.

Digging 276½ yards at 3 pence per yard £3/9/1½^d.½^d.(John Sanders 

1775)

J Twining one years wages £8 (not having a livery coat one guinea).

Mole catching 3 shillings

Digging 64 loads of stones £1/12/0 (paid in May 1775)

Paid for two pigs £2/6/0

A cow in calf £8/5/0 (sold for eight shillings profit).

15 shillings for the spotted Heifer Calf offered by Farmer Hanks April 1775.

Two and a half loads of dung at 1^s.6^d. a cart-load.

Gun £2/12/6. Pair of pistols £2/2/0. Gun rings 3^s.10^d.

Radish seeds Three pence (December 1775)

Seeds for garden 1^s.10^d.

Treacle for cow drenches Three pence

Cutting thistles in the Hay Grounds 10^s.0^d.

6 heifers bought at Stowe fair £134/10/8

Horse physick - 15^s.4½^d.

Clothing costs (1774/5)

Altering wife's stays 1/-

Black leather breeches 12/-

Mending John's Great Coat 6^d.

Making livery Coat Five shillings, waistcoat Three shillings.

One yard of figured Dimity 5^s.4^d.

Black shoe buckles 8^d. - Buttons 2^d.

Cleaning and mending 2 pairs breeches Two shillings.

Leather breeches for self One Guinea, Hat Eleven shillings, Frock Fifteen

shillings (to include making).

Suite of clothes £4/12/6^d. (Buttons 2^s. 3^d.)

One pair shoes 6^s.6^d.(soling and healing 1^s.9^d. ).

Doe-skin gloves for self 4^s.6^d.

3 yards Superfine Pompadour cloth Three Guineas (making up £2/14/0)

Hat band 3^d.

Three pairs worsted hose 6^s.6^d.

Food costs (1774/5)

Two pounds sausages 1^s.7½^d.

One Quarter Lamb (fine) 7/6^d.

3 oranges and lemons One shilling

Thirteen pounds of Cod (at one shilling a pound) 13/-

One hare Two shillings

Figs for Sophy 1½^d.

A woodcock 1^s.6^d.

Spanish liquorice and sugar candy 3½^d.

Sugar (42 pounds at 7 ½^d.) £1/6/3^d.

Two rabbits - 1^s.6^d.

Coffee (One pound) - Six shillings.

One hundred Asparagus - Six pence

Eels at Four pence a pound - 1^s.8^d.

85 pounds of cheese - £1/4/0.

Eighteen cheeses (weighing 239 pounds) - £3/4/3.

A Goose at Evesham market - 2^s.6^d.

Three Partridges - 2^s.6^d.

A Barrel of Oysters - 3^s.6^d

Six Banbury cakes - One shilling

Shoulder and side of Venison - Five shillings

Loaf sugar six pounds at 10½^d.per pound - 5^s.3^d

Two Lapwings (Mr Dalby's boy) One shilling.

Half a hundred crayfish - Two shillings

18 pidgeons at half a crown a dozen - 3^s.9^d

Walnuts - Eight pence

Essence of Cinnamon - 1^s.6^d

Heat and Light: Two dozen candles 17/11^d.

Ten tons of coal @ 27/- per ton - £13/10/0

Comparing these figures with current equivalents - multiply by 60 to give a general idea.

Wages - a comparison

My ancestor Richard Hall records the effects of inflation upon wages, but without divulging the

source of his information:

A day labourer in the years following:

1568 4d a day

1620 4d

1632 6d

1647 10d

1662 6d

1688 8d

1708 8d

1716 9d

1740 10d

1760 1s.

1783 1s.4d.

(Richard died in 1801 and does not note the rates applicable at the turn of the century but his

figures, if accurate, suggest a doubling of wages in his lifetime).

More information about Richard, his life and times, can be found at http://mikerendell.com

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