EPITOME OF THE STOCKS & PUBLIC FUNDS; CONTAINING EVERY NECESSARY INFORMATION FOR Nature of those Securities, AND THE MANNER OF TRANSACTING BUSINESS THEREIN: TO WHICH IS ADDED, A COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE. FOREIGN FUNDS. FOURTEENTH EDITION. BY JOHN FIELD, JUN. LONDON: SHERWOOD, GILBERT, AND PIPER, PATERNOSTER ROW; AND LETTS AND SON, CORNHILL. PREFACE. As, in deference to the wishes of the proprietors, the name of "Fortune" is still prefixed to this the fourteenth edition of a useful and deservedly popular manual, I owe it in justice to myself to state, that, while I have mainly adhered to the form and arrangement adopted in preceding editions, I have retained but a very few pages of the original matter. Of "Stocks and Funds" it is the peculiar character to be continually changing, and extensive alterations were, of necessity, required; but, desirous that "Fortune" should not be left behind in the "march" of improvement, I have sought to convert the "Epitome" into a Guide" by the introduction of such information as may enable the reader to form a tolerably correct idea of the ways and means of the country in whose securities he proposes to invest his capital. In addition, therefore, to the introduction of a variety of Foreign Stocks not noticed in previous editions, I have furnished the latest authenticated Financial Statements of the respective Govern ments, and have collected such statistical information as seemed best calculated to throw light on the national resources of the several countries. If my design has been much impeded by the narrow limits to which I have been confined, I can, at least, answer for the general accuracy of the statements that have been supplied. To ensure this most essential quality, I have devoted much time and labour. It is now eighteen months since I undertook, at the request of a friend, to correct and bring down the "Epitome" to the latest period. A variety of circumstances have, however, conspired to retard its publication until now; but I have by this delay been enabled to avail myself of much valuable matter that would have been lost by a more hasty compilation. Finally, if I have succeeded in rendering this little volume more generally useful, I shall not regret the many hours bestowed upon my task. JOHN FIELD, JUN. 11, THROGMORTON STREET, April 2, 1838. THE origin, growth, and present condition of our National Debt have been treated at such length, and with such ability, by successive writers, that it will evidently be more consistent with the popular character of this "Epitome" at once to refer readers, desirous of becoming acquainted with such details, to the pages of Hamilton, Fairman, and M'Culloch, than to attempt a history which, at the best, must be meagre and unsatisfactory. So far, however, as facts and figures are concerned, a sufficient knowledge of the most important may be derived from the tables we have inserted, most of which are now published for the first time. The table at page 9 exhibits, in one view, the amount of the Debt from 1688, when it first assumed a permanent form, to the present time, distinguishing the periods and manner of its increase. And from this summary we gather the striking and instructive fact, that of the 787 millions, of which our debt consists, 724 millions were expended in the two great wars with America and France! In the following table (at pp. 10, 11) we have given, from the Parliamentary returns, an account of the items of which the actual (Funded and Unfunded) Debt is composed, and of the annual charge thereon. |