History of the British national debt both government borrowing and the national debt have risen dramatically, reaching around 70% of GDP by the end of 2012. The origins of the British national debt can be found during the reign of William III, who engaged a syndicate of City traders and merchants to offer for sale an issue of government debt. This syndicate soon evolved into the Bank of England, eventually financing the wars of the Duke of Marlborough and later Imperial conquests. The establishment of the bank was devised by Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, in 1694, to the plan which had been proposed by
Bank of England club "Bank of England club" becoming majority owned by foreign investors. The "Bank of England club" has also been used to describe Sunderland in the late 1940s and the 1950s, where they spent large amounts of money intending to win trophies. However, the move was not successful as Sunderland failed to win any trophies during the period and were relegated in 1958. Everton have also been labelled as the "Bank of England club" in 1970. This came from chairman John Moores giving manager Harry Catterick large amounts of money to spend. This was successful as Everton won the First Division title