Simeons Paper

I am going to answer this question by initially identifying the some of the financial problems, Pitt had when he came in to power with finance, and what he did to deal with these problems, also how successful Pitt was in dealing with these problems, and then come to my own conclusion on how I felt he dealt with the financial problems. I will then deal with administration and the problems there was with administration and what Pitt done to deal with this, and again make my own overall judgement on Pitt in this matter. Last off all I will deal with Trade and why Pitt thought it was so important, also I will address the problems there where with the American colonies, and what Pitt done to try and get Britain's trade up and running again.

When Pitt came into power Britain had lost its American colonies and was isolated in European diplomacy, During the American conflict in Britain was also at war with three great powers in Western Europe, France, Spain and the united provinces, who had joined the conflict in support of the Americans. He Inherited a national debt that at an extreme high of £242.9 million, but this wasn't the worst of it, the worst was there an almost an annual deficit of £11 million. He had the problem of patronage appointments which meant, people who weren't the best for the job, were taking significant amounts of money for doing very little work, which effectively led to a very inefficient Government. Trade was down, due to the fact they had lost their 13 colonies in America the contributed with trade, and now this income had gone, and the fact that most of Europe didn't want to trade with England made it a very difficult task for Pitt to inherit.

The finance of Britain wasn't very efficient at all, finance which is the money of the country, such as expenditure and revenue, the fact that the debt was rising faster than the income from taxes meant that Britain wasn't in a sound financial position. The crisis which Pitt inherited into office was as much economic as it was political. Exports had declined by about 12 per cent during the same decade, in 9 years the national debt has increased by 91 per cent. The debt stood a precariously high level of £249.9, million and the deficit was almost "11 million on an annual income of £23.5 million. The value of government stocks had gone down by more than 17 per cent during 1783; the turbulence in American was a main reason for this.

Smuggling damaged the economy, as it meant products could illegally come in to the country without the government knowing, this consequently lead to the government not being able to put taxes on these good, this then lead to a 'black economy' where people could buy good for a lot cheaper off