History of the British national debt History of the British national debt The history of the British national debt can be traced back to the reign of William III, who engaged a syndicate of City traders and merchants to offer for sale an issue of government debt, which evolved into the Bank of England. In 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, British government debt reached a peak of £1 billion (that was more than 200% of GDP). At the beginning of the 20th century the national debt had been gradually reduced to around 30 percent of GDP. However, during World War I the British
A History of the Early Part of the Reign of James II A History of the Early Part of the Reign of James II A History of the Early Part of the Reign of James II (1808) is a history of England during the first year of James II's reign (1685), written by the Whig MP Charles James Fox. It was left unfinished at his death in 1806 and was not published until 1808. Ever since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Whigs had appealed to that event as a great deliverance from the attempt by James II to set up an absolute monarchy. Fox (who was James' great-great-great nephew) was a