ABSTRACT
I T is clear from the discussion in previous chapters that the terms on which the English government was borrowing for both long-and short-term purposes moved steadily in its favour over the period. In the early 169os it was paying up to I 4% for long-term loans, and up to 8% for short-term ones. By the early I 7 50s it was able to borrow much larger sums for under 4%. The chart shows this diagrammatically. It gives the changes in short-term rotes, and adds the yields on government long annuities and 3% stock, on East India stock-the leading equity of the period - and on East India bonds.1
