First Lord of the Treasury

The Admirals, John Haynes, Lynn Dawson, J.C. Kaiser, Mike Guest, Rachel Stark, Mark Duckers, Ian Harding, David Maxwell, David Preece, Graham Callister, Sean Sullivan, Stephen Ashworth, John and Casey Randolph, Kate Walker, Reto the Sci-Fi Fan, Tim Pritchard, Darla Vincent, Jason Morn, Rob Painter, Stephen Ashworth, The Iron Duke, Nickia Craig, Vincent Cervantes, Jeff Frazier and Joseph Stiles.

And in the Crown Yourself tier, Emperor of the First French Empire, Todd Campbell, Duke of Wellington, Laird Campbell, Poultry Prince of Pukalani, Bob Burnham, First Lord of the Treasury, Ryan Diamond, Child of Wellington, Jarl Brian Silcott, and Two Jacobin to Crown Oneself, Dan Hazelwood.

We'll be back very soon, but until then, this has been the Napoleonic Wars pod.

Take care of yourselves, folks.

None of it is irrational.

George Granville becomes First Lord of the Treasury in April of 1763.

He is careful, humorless, and extremely diligent, with a reputation as possibly the dullest man in Parliament, and he has inherited the following situation.

The national debt before the war was somewhere around 73 million pounds.

But why isn't...

I mean, OK, he's not the Chancellor, but he is First Lord of the Treasury.

I mean, he could have said to John Healey, right, I want you to do something radical.

And there's nothing radical in this budget, is there?

Members sit in their coats and wigs, some listening, some chatting, some dozing.

On the government benches sits the most powerful man in the kingdom, Sir Robert Walpole, First Lord of the Treasury, whom history calls Britain's first Prime Minister, though nobody at the time used that title with much affection.

Walpole is a large, red-faced, shrewd and genial man from Norfolk who loves hunting, good food, good wine and above all, peace and quiet.

He has been in power for 15 years and he has stayed there largely by avoiding trouble.

The Admirals, John Haynes, Lynn Dawson, J.C. Kaiser, Mike Guest, Rachel Stark, Mark Duckers, Ian Harding, David Maxwell, David Preece, Graham Callister, Sean Sullivan, Stephen Ashworth, John and Casey Randolph, Kate Walker, Reto the Sci-Fi Fan, Tim Pritchard, Darla Vincent, Jason Morn, Rob Painter, Stephen Ashworth, The Iron Duke, Nickia Craig, Vincent Cervantes, Jeff Frazier and Joseph Stiles.

And in the Crown Yourself tier, Emperor of the First French Empire, Todd Campbell, Duke of Wellington, Laird Campbell, Poultry Prince of Pukalani, Bob Burnham, First Lord of the Treasury, Ryan Diamond, Child of Wellington, Jarl Brian Silcott, and Two Jacobin to Crown Oneself, Dan Hazelwood.

We'll be back very soon, but until then, this has been the Napoleonic Wars pod.

Take care of yourselves, folks.

Though ostensibly a trading body, the company was mainly interested in financial operations.

in seventeen nineteen the chairman of the company supported by sunderland and by aleby the first lord of the treasury and the chancellor of the exchequer started a proposal to take over the responsibility for the whole of the national debt a certain rate of interest being paid to the company for a stated period a counterproposal made by the bank of england was rejected by parliament and the south sea company which already enjoyed the monopoly of british trade with mexico and peru took advantage of its victory and of the anxiety of the public to share in its profits and issued one million pounds new stock at a high premium a further issue at a still higher premium was equally successful and in august seventeen twenty south sea stock stood at one thousand per cent during the mania many bogus companies were formed often under distinguished patronage people were found foolish enough to invest in schemes for discovering perpetual motion and utilising it for machinery for discovering buried treasure even for engaging in a secret undertaking of profit which shall presently be made public when those bubble companies began to fail the south sea shares also sank in value for all holders of shares grew despondent and wished to realize their money at once its bonds gradually fell from one thousand down to one hundred and thirty-five when the inevitable crash came the nation turned to walpole who had from the first opposed the south sea scheme and had resisted the passage of the bill in the house of commons The ministry, several members of which had been closely connected with the company, was discredited.

Sunderland resigned.

Craggs committed suicide.

It remained for Walpole, a minister far more capable than either Townsend or Stanhope, to take further measures for the material advancement of the country and for the firm establishment of the Hanoverian dynasty.

CHAPTER II.

THE MINISTRY OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, 1721-1742. the years of walpole's ministry form an important period in english history he secured for england nearly twenty years of peace and prosperity saw the firm establishment of the hanoverian dynasty on the throne and fostered an enormous development in the wealth and commerce of the country a norfolk squire of good family endowed with excellent business capacities sound judgment and tact walpole had early shown that he possessed those qualities which fit a man for governing a country he would have been an ideal prime minister but for his too cynical tongue and his jealousy of all possible rivals Born in 1676, he had not completed his 45th year when he was called upon in April 1721 to take the offices of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

These offices he held with one short break for 21 years, and during his ministry he saw several important constitutional changes quietly effected.

The Admirals, John Haynes, Lynn Dawson, J.C. Kaiser, Mike Guest, Rachel Stark, Mark Duckers, Ian Harding, David Maxwell, David Preece, Graham Callister, Sean Sullivan, Stephen Ashworth, John and Casey Randolph, Kate Walker, Reto the Sci-Fi Fan, Tim Pritchard, Darla Vincent, Jason Morn, Rob Painter, Stephen Ashworth, The Iron Duke, Nickia Craig, Vincent Cervantes, Jeff Frazier, and Joseph Stiles.

And in the Crown Yourself tier, Emperor of the First French Empire, Todd Campbell, Duke of Wellington, Laird Campbell, Poultry Prince of Pukalani, Bob Burnham, First Lord of the Treasury, Ryan Diamond, Child of Wellington, Jarl Brian Silcott, and Two Jacobin to Crown Oneself, Dan Hazelwood.

We'll be back very soon, but until then, this has been the Napoleonic Wars pod.

Take care of yourselves, folks.

But Godolphin still retained his post at Whitehall, and to the men of the revolution it seemed intolerable that one who had sate at the council board of Charles and James, and who had voted for a regency, should be the principal minister of finance.

Those who felt thus had learned with malicious delight that the first lord of the treasury was named in the confession about which all the world was talking, and they were determined not to let slip so good an opportunity of ejecting him from office.

On the other hand, everybody who had seen Fenwick's paper, and who had not, in the drunkenness of factious animosity, lost all sense of reason and justice, must have felt that it was impossible to make a distinction between two parts of that paper, and to treat all that related to Shrewsbury and Russell as false, and all that related to Godolphin as true.

This was acknowledged even by Wharton, who of all public men was the least troubled by scruples or by shame.

Such a notification would have been an affront to Montague, and Montague, flushed with prosperity and glory, was not in a mood to put up with affronts.

The dispute was compromised.

Montague became first lord of the treasury, and the vacant seat at the board was filled by Sir Thomas Littleton, one of the ablest and most consistent Whigs in the House of Commons.

But from tenderness to Fox these promotions were not announced in the Gazette.