The English State Lottery-Loan and the Origins of Modern Public Finance in the Atlantic World, 1694 - 1826

Abstract

The 170 English state lottery-loans held from 1694 to 1826 were a key method of modern longterm debt-based public finance, utilized as an important emergency contingency in times of war. This dissertation examines the neglected contribution of longterm lottery-loans to Anglo- American public finance in the long eighteenth-century. The implementation of the lottery-loan program in England had substantial political, economic, and legal consequences in domestic England, as well as in colonial America. The significant role played by the English state lottery- loans in the financial revolution has been overlooked. This thesis establishes state lotteries as integral to the post-1688 financial revolution and re-evaluates major claims of the revolution thesis in regards to public finance innovation and state stability. By the end of the eighteenth century English and American public finance would firmly embrace the liberal fiscal principles that supported public debt as an integral part of the modern state.