Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Finance and Politics in Ireland, 1801–17

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Taxation, Politics, and Protest in Ireland, 1662–2016

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance ((PSHF))

  • 326 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter explains how financial relations between Britain and Ireland were arranged by the Act of Union (1800) and presents some of the consequent financial and political difficulties. The arrangements were intended to be generous to Ireland. Nevertheless, Ireland struggled to meet its financial obligations. As Irish debt increased and options for raising income from taxation shrank, it became important to minimise collection costs. But this meant addressing the issue of patronage and challenging the existing culture of political management in Ireland and even the viceregal system of government of the Lord Lieutenant and his Chief Secretary. The Chancellors of the Irish Exchequer were frustrated in their attempts to manage Irish public finance.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Trevor Robert McCavery, ‘Finance and Politics in Ireland, 1801–1817’ (Ph.D. diss., Queen’s University of Belfast, 1980), passim.

  2. 2.

    For this interpretation see Alice Effie Murray, History of the Commercial and Financial Relations between England and Ireland since the Restoration (London: P. S. King, 1903); Earl of Dunraven, The Finances of Ireland before the Union and after: An Historical Study (London: John Murray, 1912); George O’Brien, The Economic History of Ireland from the Union to the Famine (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1921); T. J. Kiernan, History of the Financial Administration of Ireland to 1817 (London: P. S. King and Son, 1930). For a more detailed study of this subject see McCavery, ‘Finance’, 13–45, 217–18.

  3. 3.

    William Pitt to Lord Auckland, 4 June 1798, The Journals and Correspondence of William, Lord Auckland, ed. Bishop of Bath and Wells, 4 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1861–62), 2:2.

  4. 4.

    Lord Camden to Pitt, 16 June 1798, quoted in H. M. Hyde, The Rise of Castlereagh (London: Macmillan, 1933), 219.

  5. 5.

    ‘C.’s plan of Union’, n.d., Auckland Papers, British Library (hereafter, BL) Add. MS 34455, f. 154; Pitt to Auckland, 14 Aug. 1798, Sneyd Papers, Keele University Library, photocopies in Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (hereafter, PRONI) T.3229/2/35.

  6. 6.

    Pitt to Auckland, 14 Aug. 1798, Sneyd Papers, PRONI T.3229/2/35.

  7. 7.

    Duke of Portland to Lord Cornwallis, 12 Nov. 1798, Correspondence of Charles, 1st Marquis Cornwallis, ed. Sir Charles Ross, 3 vols. (London: John Murray, 1859), 2:436.

  8. 8.

    Viscount Castlereagh to Portland, 7 Jan. 1799, Memoirs and Correspondence of Viscount Castlereagh, ed. Marquess of Londonderry, 4 vols. (London: Henry Colburn, 1848–49), 2:84.

  9. 9.

    Castlereagh, ‘Plan of contribution’, n.d. (‘received 17 Jan 1799’), Chatham Papers, The National Archives (hereafter, TNA): 30/8/327, f. 21.

  10. 10.

    Robert Hobart to Auckland, Sneyd Papers, PRONI T.3229/12/43.

  11. 11.

    Cooke to Castlereagh, 13 Nov. 1799, Chatham Papers, TNA: 30/8/327, f. 169.

  12. 12.

    Edward Cooke to John Beresford, 18 Dec. 1799, Correspondence of the Rt. Hon. John Beresford, ed. William Beresford, 2 vols. (London: Woodfall and Kinder, 1854), 2:235.

  13. 13.

    ‘Draft relative to proportional contributions and criterions [sic]’, n.d., Castlereagh Papers, PRONI D.3030/1130; Castlereagh Correspondence, 3:191.

  14. 14.

    Castlereagh to Auckland, 20 [Dec. 1799], Sneyd Papers, PRONI T.3229/2/48.

  15. 15.

    Cooke to Castlereagh, 13 Nov. 1799, Chatham Papers, TNA: 30/8/327, f. 169.

  16. 16.

    Castlereagh Papers, PRONI D.3030/1127.

  17. 17.

    Castlereagh to Pitt, 18 Jan. 1800, Cornwallis Correspondence, 3:159.

  18. 18.

    Auckland to Castlereagh, Apr. 1800, Castlereagh Papers, PRONI D.3030/1271.

  19. 19.

    Dunraven, Finances of Ireland, 71; T. J. Kiernan’s statistics are similar: he said that the total Irish debt rose from £27 million to £107 million in the period 1801–17: Kiernan, Financial Administration, 306.

  20. 20.

    For details on borrowing, see McCavery, ‘Finance’, 202–19.

  21. 21.

    Viscount Frankfort de Montmorency to Alexander Marsden, 27 May 1803, Chief Secretary’s Office: Official Papers, National Archives of Ireland (hereafter, NAI) 522/145/6 (9); Parliamentary Register, vol. 3, p. 624 (20 June 1803); Earl of Hardwicke to Charles Yorke, 13 Apr. 1804, Hardwicke Papers, BL Add. MS 35705, f. 328.

  22. 22.

    Hardwicke to Lord Hawkesbury, 26 Feb. 1805, Hardwicke Papers, BL Add. MS 35710, f. 26.

  23. 23.

    For a more detailed study of the debates surrounding direct taxation in the period 1810–17 see McCavery, ‘Finance’, 219–24.

  24. 24.

    Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 1st ser., vol. 26, col. 257 (20 May 1813).

  25. 25.

    McCavery, ‘Finance’, 225.

  26. 26.

    Hansard, 1st ser., vol. 7, cols. 35–50 (7 May 1806).

  27. 27.

    Ibid., vol. 14, col. 679 (24 May 1809).

  28. 28.

    McCavery, ‘Finance’, 219.

  29. 29.

    For a detailed study of the fiscal policies pursued by successive Chancellors of the Irish Exchequer see McCavery, ‘Finance’, 202–307.

  30. 30.

    Earl of Liverpool to Robert Peel, 20 Oct. 1813, Peel Papers, BL Add. MS 40181, f. 48; Peel to Viscount Whitworth, 9 Nov. 1813, and reply, 12 Nov. 1813, Whitworth Papers, Centre for Kentish Studies, U.269/O.255 bundle 2, Peel Papers, BL Add. MS 40187, f. 104.

  31. 31.

    This commission of enquiry established in 1804 was set up at John Foster’s request and chaired by his nephew, J. S. Rochfort, the son of his wife’s sister. For its work see McCavery, ‘Finance’, 101, 134–37, 161–63.

  32. 32.

    Nicholas Vansittart to William Vesey FitzGerald, 28 Feb. 1814, Vesey FitzGerald Papers, National Library of Ireland (hereafter, NLI) MS 7828, p. 172.

  33. 33.

    FitzGerald to Vansittart, 23 Feb.1814, Vesey FitzGerald Papers, NLI MS 7828, p. 52.

  34. 34.

    Liverpool to FitzGerald, 28 Feb. 1814, Vesey FitzGerald papers, NLI MS 7828, p. 169.

  35. 35.

    McCavery, ‘Finance’, 173–79.

  36. 36.

    Dunraven, Finances of Ireland, 78, 86–89.

  37. 37.

    Whitworth to Peel, 14 June 1816, and reply, Peel Papers, BL Add. MSS, 40192, f. 154, 40291, f. 343.

  38. 38.

    George III to Henry Addington, [11] Feb. [1801], The Viceroy’s Post-Bag: Correspondence Hitherto Unpublished of the Earl of Hardwicke First Lord Lieutenant of Ireland after the Union, ed. Michael MacDonagh (London: John Murray, 1904), 3.

  39. 39.

    ‘Heads of private instructions to be observed by the Earl of Hardwicke in the execution of his office of lord lieutenant of Ireland’, n.d., Hardwicke Papers, BL Add. MS 35707, f. 33.

  40. 40.

    For a detailed study of this subject see McCavery, ‘Finance’, 46–201.

  41. 41.

    Yorke to Charles Abbot, 12 Oct. 1801, Colchester Papers, TNA: 30/9/16; Hardwicke to Addington, 26 Aug. 1801, Hardwicke Papers, BL Add. MS 35707, f. 100.

  42. 42.

    Beresford to Auckland, 11 Oct. 1801, Auckland Papers, Add. MS 34455, f. 438; St Leger to Viscount Doneraile, 4 Nov. 1801, Colchester Papers, TNA: 30/9/13; Fenwick to [Abbot], 9 Nov. 1801, Colchester Papers, TNA: 30/9/13; Abbot to Bishop of Meath, 22 Oct. 1801, Colchester Papers, TNA: 30/9/14; Abbot to Yorke, 21 Jan. 1802, Colchester Papers, TNA: 30/9/16; [?] to Abbot, n.d., Colchester Papers, TNA: 30/9/8, 30/9/20.

  43. 43.

    Parliamentary Register, vol. 15, pp. 403–5 (28 May 1801), 513–14 (10 June 1801); Journals of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, vol. 56, pp. 352 (4 May 1801), 383 (8 May 1801), 476 (28 May 1801), 483 (1 June 1801), 535 (10 June I801).

  44. 44.

    For this conflict, see McCavery, ‘Finance’, 63–67.

  45. 45.

    Lady Londonderry to Maurice FitzGerald, FitzGerald Papers, PRONI MIC.639/8/24; Hardwicke to William Wickham, 11 July 1803, Hardwicke to Yorke, 2 Jan. 1804, Hardwicke Papers, BL Add. MSS 35772, f. 200, 35704, f. 254; Wickham to Addington, passim, Wickham Papers, Hampshire Record Office, photocopies in PRONI T.2627/5/D/63–65, 68, 72, 75–79, 82.

  46. 46.

    Wickham to Hardwicke, 8 Apr. 1802, Hardwicke Papers, BL Add. MS 35713, f. 254.

  47. 47.

    Abbot to Marsden, 27 June 1802, Chief Secretary’s Office: Official Papers, NAI 5211/136/5 (2); Addington to Lord Redesdale, 29 June 1802, Redesdale Papers, Gloucestershire Record Office, photocopies in PRONI T.3030/3/8.

  48. 48.

    Hardwicke to Yorke, 10 Jan. 1804, Hardwicke Papers, BL Add. MS 35704, f. 254.

  49. 49.

    Addington to Redesdale, 23 Oct. 1803, Redesdale Papers, PRONI T.3030/3/J3; Yorke to Hardwicke, 14 Jan. 1804, Hardwicke to York, 14 Jan. 1804, Hardwicke Papers, BL Add. MS 35704, ff. 337, 254.

  50. 50.

    For details of Corry’s errors see McCavery, ‘Finance’, 77–92.

  51. 51.

    Marsden to Hardwicke, 26 June 1804, Hardwicke Papers, BL Add. MS 35724, f. 163.

  52. 52.

    Memo of a conversation between Pitt, Henry Dundas, and Cooke, 21–22 Jan. 1793, Melville Papers, NLI MS 54A/74.

  53. 53.

    McCavery, ‘Finance’, 97.

  54. 54.

    Vansittart to Redesdale, 22 June 1805, Redesdale Papers, T.3030/10/J6.

  55. 55.

    Yorke to Hardwicke, 25 May 1804, and reply, Hardwicke Papers, BL Add. MS 35706, f. 46; Sir Evan Nepean to Hardwicke, 2 June 1804, 13 June 1804, Hardwicke Papers, BL Add. MS 35709, f. 71.

  56. 56.

    Foster’s deployment of Treasury powers is more fully documented in McCavery, ‘Finance’, 102–7; for detailed treatment see A. P. W. Malcomson, John Foster (1740–1828): The Politics of Improvement and Prosperity (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2011), 194–98.

  57. 57.

    McCavery, ‘Finance’, 107–13; Malcomson, Foster, 198–214.

  58. 58.

    John Foster to Pitt, 29 June 1805, Chatham Papers, TNA: 30/8/32B, f. 65; Vansittart to Hardwicke, 30 June 1805, Hardwicke Papers, BL Add. MS 35716, f. 113.

  59. 59.

    Thomas Grenville to Lord Grenville, 20 Sept. 1805, The Manuscripts of J. B. Fortescue, Esq., Preserved at Dropmore, ed. Historical Manuscripts Commission, 10 vols. (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1892–1927), 7:304; Charles Long to Redesdale 25 Sept. 1805, Redesdale Papers, PRONI T.3030/8/13; Long to Pitt, 20 Oct. 1805, Chatham Papers, TNA: 30/8/238, f. 259; Hardwicke to Yorke, 4 Oct. 1805, Hardwicke Papers, BL Add. MS 35706, f. 296; Wickham to Redesdale, 13 Oct. 1805, Redesdale Papers, PRONI T.3030/4/7; Hardwicke to Abbot, 1 Jan. 1806, Hardwicke Papers, BL Add. MS 35764, f. 161; Long to Redesdale, 27 Sept. 1804, Redesdale Papers, PRONI T.3030/8/6.

  60. 60.

    Foster to Long, [20? Oct. 1805], 23 Oct. 1805, 27 Oct. 1805, TNA: HO 100/131, ff. 247, 249, 251, 259; Long to Pitt, [1?] Oct. 1805, 29 Oct. 1805, Chatham Papers, TNA: 30/8/328, ff. 261–63, 259.

  61. 61.

    Long to Pitt, 1 Oct. 1805, 29 Oct. 1805, Chatham Papers, TNA: 30/8/28, ff. 259, 261; Long to Redesdale, 25 Sept 1805, Redesdale Papers, PRONI T.3030/8/13.

  62. 62.

    For a detailed discussion of financial administration in Ireland by the ‘Ministry of all the Talents’, see McCavery, ‘Finance’, 129–45.

  63. 63.

    Duke of Richmond to the Earl of Bathurst, 20 June 1808, Whitworth Papers, V.269/O.214/2/71.

  64. 64.

    Sir Arthur Wellesley to Long, 6 June 1807, The Supplementary Despatches, Letters and Memoranda of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, ed. 2nd Duke of Wellington, 5 vols. (London: John Murray, 1860), 5:73.

  65. 65.

    For detailed discussion of financial administration in this period, see McCavery, ‘Finance’ 146–66.

  66. 66.

    FitzGerald to William Wellesley-Pole, 17 Sept. 1810, Wellesley Papers, BL Add. MS 40207, f. 2.

  67. 67.

    Long to Wellesley, 26 Oct 1807, Apsley House MS, photocopies in PRONI T.2627/3/2/208; Dundas to Pole, 22 Oct. 1809, Melville Papers, NLI MS 55A/34C.

  68. 68.

    Foster to Pole, 1 Feb. 1811, and reply, 13 Feb. 1811, Foster Papers, PRONI D.207/3B/42/44; Foster to James Crofton, 18 Feb. 1811; Spencer Perceval to Foster, Feb. 1811, Foster Papers, PRONI D.207/69/3.

  69. 69.

    Pole to Richmond, 15 June 1811, Richmond Papers, NLI MS 1730.

  70. 70.

    Richmond to Pole, 19 June 1811, Whitworth Papers, U.269/0.214/5.

  71. 71.

    J. M. Barry to FitzGerald, 30 Aug. 1812, Vesey FitzGerald Papers, NLI MS 7821, p. 6.

  72. 72.

    Whitworth to Lord Sidmouth, 4 Sept. 1813, Whitworth Papers, U.269/O.218/4/33.

  73. 73.

    Liverpool to Peel, 4 October 1813, Peel Papers, BL Add. MS 40183, f. 39.

  74. 74.

    Peel to Liverpool, 20 Oct. 1813, Liverpool Papers, BL Add. MS 38915, f. 14.

  75. 75.

    K. T. Hoppen, Governing Hibernia: British Politicians and Ireland, 1800–1921 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 18–20.

  76. 76.

    Hardwicke to Hawkesbury, 6 June 1805, TNA: HO 100/129, ff. 301–4.

  77. 77.

    For more detail on the British and Irish governments’ obsession with security see Hoppen, Governing Hibernia, 46–59.

  78. 78.

    Foster to FitzGerald, 9 May 1813, Vesey FitzGerald Papers, NLI MS 7818, p. 275.

  79. 79.

    Hansard, 1st ser., vol. 11, col. 442 (19 May 1808).

  80. 80.

    Wellesley to James Trail, 9 May 1808, Supplementary Despatches, 5:412; Wellesley to Hawkesbury, 15 May 1808, idem, 422; Richmond to Wellesley, 12 May 1808, Apsley House MS, PRONI T.2627/3/3/272.

  81. 81.

    Hansard, 1st ser., vol. 11, cols. 428–51 (19 May 1808).

  82. 82.

    Perceval to Foster, 9 Apr. 1808, Foster Papers, PRONI D.562/2147; for a detailed study of the arguments for and against prohibition of distillation see McCavery, ‘Finance’, 240–57.

  83. 83.

    Quoted in McCavery, ‘Finance’, 253.

  84. 84.

    FitzGerald to Foster, 1 May 1813, FitzGerald, Papers, NLI MS 7818, pp. 37, 41.

  85. 85.

    Dunraven, Finances of Ireland, 67.

  86. 86.

    Ibid., 77–78.

  87. 87.

    Kiernan, Financial Administration, 300–6.

  88. 88.

    Privately, see Castlereagh Papers, PRONI D.3030/1127; publicly, Castlereagh spoke in the Irish House of Commons, 5 Feb. 1800, quoted in Dunraven, Finances of Ireland, 56–57.

  89. 89.

    Dunraven, Finances of Ireland, 86–87.

  90. 90.

    Ibid., 84.

  91. 91.

    McCavery, ‘Finance’, 236–41.

  92. 92.

    Castle Coote to Foster, 24 May 1811, Foster Papers, D.562/11864.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Independent Scholar, Newtownards, Northern Ireland

    Trevor McCavery

Authors
  1. Trevor McCavery
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

    Douglas Kanter

  2. Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Patrick Walsh

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

McCavery, T. (2019). Finance and Politics in Ireland, 1801–17. In: Kanter, D., Walsh, P. (eds) Taxation, Politics, and Protest in Ireland, 1662–2016. Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04309-4_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04309-4_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-04308-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-04309-4

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation