Outlines Of A Plan Of Finance: Proposed To Be Submitted To Parliament. Parliamentary Finance.

First edition of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's proposal to tackle the debts built up during the American Wars of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars. Nicholas Vansittart (1766-1851), among the longest-serving Chancellors in British history, first took the office in 1812 under Lord Liverpool. The plan outlined here was his first major policy initiative: it aims to rationalise Pitt's sinking fund in relation to the national debt. Provenance: contemporary signature of "William Russell" to the half-title. The pamphlet shows signs of having been folded for storage, and a contemporary hand has corrected several of Vansittart's figures - most notably, revising his estimate of the national debt in 1786 from "about £240,000,000" to "£238,231,248". This evidence of close engagement may suggest that the Russell in question was Lord William Russell (1767-1840), who had been Lord of the Admiralty in 1806 and MP for Tavistock from 1807. Goldsmiths' 20773. Octavo (228 x 137 mm). Modern orange cloth, original blue paper wrappers bound in, edges uncut. With 12 pp. of tables at rear. 20th-century bookplates of Professor Arnold Heertje (1934-2020) to front pastedown and verso of front wrapper. Minor rubbing and chipping to margins, light browning and foxing to wrappers and contents: a very good copy indeed.