Finance, money, corruption and the English Exchequer Bill scandals of 1697-1699

Studies of the English “financial revolution” after 1688 continue to emphasize the importance of institutional reform and bureaucratic rigour in the new English “fiscal-military state”. Nevertheless, Marjolein ’t Hart's work on the comparable Dutch financial revolution suggests the need to examine these developments in their wider context. In this case, examining several scandals surrounding the Exchequer bills issued by the English state after 1697 demonstrate that incidents of corruption instead reflected the continued weaknesses of the state, the admixture of political concerns, and the need to bend or break rules in order to maintain public credit. In particular, the efforts to prosecute revenue officials accused of corruptly exploiting loopholes within the Exchequer bill system exposed the informal measures necessary to keep that system in operation, and even worked against the English state by publicizing the limits and loopholes inherent in the system. The English financial revolution in this period therefore needs to be analysed, like the Dutch one, as one embedded in a broader set of political and economic contexts and considerations