New Fiscal-Military State in the Eighteenth-Century English Literature

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present the new fiscal-military state in light of eighteenth-century English literature. In reality, there were many different reactions to the new financial system at the time. It turns out that while many people embraced them, many others criticized them. The fiscal-military state produced enormous vested interests that were reliant on the results of the exceptional experiment in public credit. In addition to the armed forces, everyone who had a stake in it included the staff members of financial corporations, those who rendered services to them on the stock exchange, and the officials who worked in the revenue system. Among those who supported its founding were the stockholders of the three major corporations. Owners of Bank and East India stock made up approximately a third of the group, which numbered around 10,000 persons. Most of them lived in London and the Home Counties, and non-landed sources of income made up the majority of their income. Fewer than many landowners have excess cash to invest in bank stocks or related to the South Sea or East India. The ‘monied interest’ investors in government loans received heavy criticism from spokespeople for the landed classes. Because of the disagreements between the Whig and Tory parties in the latter Stuart era, the conflict of interests purportedly caused by the financial revolution became entangled in those conflicts. The Whigs were said to be fostering the wealthy interest by the Tories, who claimed to speak for the landed interest. Not all Whigs supported the new public credit system uncritically. It has revealed the rationale behind the growth of the fiscal-military state.