Sold – In December 1776, George III Acts to Deal With Mounting Expenses in the American War

The document is also signed by Townshend of the infamous Townshend Acts.

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On October 26, 1775, King George III addressed the British Parliament, expressing his determination to act decisively against the American rebellion. He said he would increase the naval and land forces directed to restoring royal rule, implied that foreign troops might be employed and that British troops would be reorganized. In response,...

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Sold – In December 1776, George III Acts to Deal With Mounting Expenses in the American War

The document is also signed by Townshend of the infamous Townshend Acts.

On October 26, 1775, King George III addressed the British Parliament, expressing his determination to act decisively against the American rebellion. He said he would increase the naval and land forces directed to restoring royal rule, implied that foreign troops might be employed and that British troops would be reorganized. In response, the Committee of Supply proposed a navy of 80 ships with 28,000 men and a land force of 25,000 foot soldiers.

This, however, failed in parliament for reasons of funding and popular support; so the cabinet turned to King George’s other realm – Hannover – which embraced the call. In exchange for substantial financial compensation, Hannover gave 5 battalions for use, not initially in America, but to fortify the garrisons at Gibraltar and Minorca, the major training and lodging centers for the British military. This freed English troops for American duty in 1776, and many men formerly stationed at those garrisons would fight in the battles of that year.

The King’s Lords of the Treasury, who managed the fiscal affairs of the British Empire, were Viscount Beauchamp, Charles Wolfram Cornewall, and Charles Townshend, of the infamous Townshend Acts. All military expenditures in connection with the Revolutionary War were managed by these men, along with Lord North, the Prime Minister. In 1776, the British were still recovering from expenditures during the French and Indian war. The government had borrowed heavily from British and Dutch bankers to finance that war, and in order to address this onerous liability, British officials turned to taxing the American colonies. With the Declaration of Independence and accompanying war, no revenues were flowing in from America and, in fact, expenses were increasing with the new hostilities far from home. So the Lords of the Treasury were in a cash crunch.

The American war was not popular in England and recruitment was proving difficult. Commissioners appointed in September 1776 to negotiate a peace, including General Howe who had been forced out of Boston, made no headway. When Howe then demanded 20,000 more men for 1777, he was told by Lord North that the financial situation at home was bad; he would receive only 2,500. The King would even confess to Parliament in 1777 that he was £600,000 in debt personally; Parliament settled his debts and increased the King’s “line of credit.”

Faced with mounting military challenges in America and financial burdens both at home and abroad, King George and his Lords of the Treasury prepared this document, presumably sent to the commander of the garrison on the Island of Minorca, summarizing the past year’s expenditures, ordering the halt to all new ones for the “time being,” and instructing that no additional payments should be made without official approval.

Document Signed by the King and Lords of the Treasury, London, December 16, 1776. “Our will and pleasure is that this Establishment of our Forces in Our Island of Minorca and Garrison of Gibraltar with the other Charges thereunto belonging hereafter mentioned do commence and take the place from the 25th Day of December 1775, and continue in force until the 24th Day of December 1776, both inclusive; and that no new charge be added thereunto, without being first communicated to Us, Our High Treasurer, or the Commissioners of Our Treasurer for the Time Being.” On the verso is a listing of all the expenses for the garrison, including both per diem allowances and annual figures of expenditures (such as for “A regiment of food, field and staff officers” or “One company of Grenadiers”). This accounting sheet was apparently designed to verify amounts of payments previously authorized and made.

Based on both components of this document taken together, it appears likely that the British government, facing increased financial pressures, rather than reauthorize expenditures at its key base of Minorca, instead required a halt of further expenses there. What money there was would be needed for the insurrection in America, as the war was about to take a turn to favor the newly-independent United States. One other document related to the Minorca garrison has reached the market and it is consistent with this thesis. Dating from 1774, it authorized the expenses for the coming year without any halt.

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