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Letter to Editor
September 7, 1782
The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser
Portsmouth, Exeter, Rockingham County, New Hampshire
What is this article about?
A letter to the printers presents a catechism illustrating the vast scale of England's national debt (estimated at 195 million pounds), through calculations of counting time, weight, shipping needs, linear distance, manpower, annual interest, funding via taxes, and the impossibility of repayment.
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Messieurs Printers,
The following may be matter of curiosity to many of your readers, and the public in general, which contains a catechism relative to the English national debt.
SUPPOSING this debt to be only 195 millions of pounds sterling at present, although it is much more, and that it was all to be counted in shillings, that a man could count at the rate of a hundred shillings per minute for twelve hours each day, till he had counted the whole, how long would he take in doing it?
Ans. One hundred and forty-eight years, one hundred and nine days, twenty two hours.
Q. 2d. The whole of this sum being three thousand nine hundred millions of Shillings, and the coinage standard being sixty two shillings in the troy pound, what is the whole weight of this sum?
A. Sixty-one million, seven hundred and fifty-two thousand, four hundred and seventy-six troy pounds.
Q. 3d. How many ships would carry this weight, suppose a hundred ton in each?
A. Three hundred and fourteen ships.
Q. 4th. How many carts would carry this weight, suppose a ton in each?
A. Thirty-one thousand four hundred and fifty two carts.
Q. 5th. The breadth of a shilling being one inch, if all these shillings were laid in a straight line close to one another's edges, how long would the line be that would contain them?
A. Sixty one thousand, five hundred and fifty two miles, which is nine thousand, five hundred and seventy two miles more than twice round the whole circumference of the earth.
Q. 6th. Supposing a man could carry one hundred weight from London to York, how many men would it require to carry the whole?
A. Six hundred and nineteen thousand, eight hundred and eighty-one.
Q. 7th. Suppose the interest of this debt to be three and a half per cent. per annum, what does the whole annual interest amount to?
A. Six millions, seven hundred and seventy thousand pounds.
Q. 8th. How doth government raise this interest annually?
A. By taxing those who lent the principal, and others.
Q. 9th. When will government be able to pay the principal?
A. When there is more money in England's treasury alone, than there is in all Europe.
Q. 10th. And when will that be?
A. Never.
The following may be matter of curiosity to many of your readers, and the public in general, which contains a catechism relative to the English national debt.
SUPPOSING this debt to be only 195 millions of pounds sterling at present, although it is much more, and that it was all to be counted in shillings, that a man could count at the rate of a hundred shillings per minute for twelve hours each day, till he had counted the whole, how long would he take in doing it?
Ans. One hundred and forty-eight years, one hundred and nine days, twenty two hours.
Q. 2d. The whole of this sum being three thousand nine hundred millions of Shillings, and the coinage standard being sixty two shillings in the troy pound, what is the whole weight of this sum?
A. Sixty-one million, seven hundred and fifty-two thousand, four hundred and seventy-six troy pounds.
Q. 3d. How many ships would carry this weight, suppose a hundred ton in each?
A. Three hundred and fourteen ships.
Q. 4th. How many carts would carry this weight, suppose a ton in each?
A. Thirty-one thousand four hundred and fifty two carts.
Q. 5th. The breadth of a shilling being one inch, if all these shillings were laid in a straight line close to one another's edges, how long would the line be that would contain them?
A. Sixty one thousand, five hundred and fifty two miles, which is nine thousand, five hundred and seventy two miles more than twice round the whole circumference of the earth.
Q. 6th. Supposing a man could carry one hundred weight from London to York, how many men would it require to carry the whole?
A. Six hundred and nineteen thousand, eight hundred and eighty-one.
Q. 7th. Suppose the interest of this debt to be three and a half per cent. per annum, what does the whole annual interest amount to?
A. Six millions, seven hundred and seventy thousand pounds.
Q. 8th. How doth government raise this interest annually?
A. By taxing those who lent the principal, and others.
Q. 9th. When will government be able to pay the principal?
A. When there is more money in England's treasury alone, than there is in all Europe.
Q. 10th. And when will that be?
A. Never.
What sub-type of article is it?
Informative
Provocative
What themes does it cover?
Economic Policy
Taxation
What keywords are associated?
National Debt
English Debt
Shillings
Taxation
Interest
Catechism
Fiscal Burden
What entities or persons were involved?
Messieurs Printers
Letter to Editor Details
Recipient
Messieurs Printers
Main Argument
the english national debt is enormously burdensome, illustrated through hyperbolic calculations of its scale, with interest funded by taxation and principal repayment deemed impossible.
Notable Details
Catechism Format
Calculations In Shillings
Hyperbolic Answers Like 'Never'