ABSTRACT
The relations between the Treasury and other government departments in the eighteenth century still require detailed study. In the introduction to the Calendar of Treasury Books and Papers, 1742–1745, written nearly sixty years ago, William A. Shaw examined the Treasury's control over the preparation of naval estimates in the first half of the century. This chapter traces the position between 1783 and 1806, in an attempt to discover any changes which had taken place or any lessening of the Admiralty's financial independence by 1806. The unusual financial independence Shaw noted in the 1740's still existed forty years later, and it will be convenient here to examine the traditional methods by which naval estimates were voted. The Admiralty was very largely independent of Treasury control, receiving its own revenues and paying its own bills. Money for the Navy was granted by Parliamentary vote and the Treasury exercised little influence over Admiralty finance or the naval estimates.
