page_title: William Pitt the Younger
section_title: Finances
hierarchical_section_title: William Pitt the Younger / First premiership / Finances
caption_attribution_description: English: A new way to pay the national-debt / design'd by Helagabalis&#160;; executed by Sejanus. SUMMARY: Cartoon depicts a slovenly-attired King George III and Queen Charlotte standing before the Treasury with moneybags under their arms and with a surfeit of gold guineas overflowing their pockets and bursting from the fly of the King's long-johns. William Pitt, his pockets similarly overflowing, hands the king another moneybag from a pile in a wheelbarrow. The Prince of Wales (heir to the throne) stands to the right, destitute in torn rags and missing a shoe; he is being handed a check saying "Accept £200000 from your friend Orleans". A quad-amputee sits on the ground to the left with an empty begging hat between the stubs of his prostheses-fitted legs. Posters on the wall read "Last Dying Speech of Fifty-Four Malefactors executed for robbing of a Hen-Roost" and "Just published for the benefit of Posterity: The Dying Groans of Liberty". MEDIUM: 1 print&#160;: etching. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [London]&#160;: Pubd. by Willm. Holland, 1786 April 21. Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 6, no. 6945 Forms part of: British Cartoon Prints Collection (Library of Congress). Exhibited: Gillray and the Art of Caricature.
context_page_description: William Pitt the Younger was a prominent British Tory statesman of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He became the youngest prime minister of Great Britain in 1783 at the age of 24 and the first prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as of January 1801. He left office in March 1801, but served as prime minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806. He was also Chancellor of the Exchequer for all of his time as prime minister. He is known as "the Younger" to distinguish him from his father, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, who is customarily referred to as "William Pitt the Elder" and had previously served as prime minister.
  Pitt's prime ministerial tenure, which came during the reign of King George III, was dominated by major political events in Europe, including the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Pitt, although often referred to as a Tory, or "new Tory", called himself an "independent Whig" and was generally opposed to the development of a strict partisan political system.
  Pitt was regarded as an outstanding administrator who worked for efficiency and reform, bringing in a new generation of outstanding administrators.
context_section_description: Another important domestic issue with which Pitt had to concern himself was the national debt, which had doubled to £243 million during the American war. Every year a third of the budget of £24 million went to pay interest. Pitt sought to reduce the national debt by imposing new taxes. In 1786, he instituted a sinking fund so that £1 million a year was added to a fund so that it could accumulate interest; eventually, the money in the fund was to be used to pay off the national debt. By 1792, the debt had fallen to £170 million.
  Pitt always paid careful attention to financial issues. A fifth of Britain's imports were smuggled in without paying taxes. He made it easier for honest merchants to import goods by lowering tariffs on easily smuggled items such as tea, wine, spirits and tobacco. This policy raised customs revenues by nearly £2 million a year.
caption: In A new way to pay the National Debt (1786), James Gillray caricatured Queen Charlotte and George III awash with treasury funds to cover royal debts, with Pitt handing them another moneybag.
exif: {}