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British national debt
Also known as: national debt
Facts (20)
Sources
Ottobah Cugoano on British Slavery, National Debt, and Speculative ... jmphil.org Jan 24, 2025 20 facts
claimThe first 140 years of the British national debt produced two competing narratives: corporate wealth and national stability grew through corporate investment, while independent investors suffered ruin in cycles of boom and bust.
claimOttobah Cugoano argues that the transatlantic slave trade was both a cause and an effect of the British national debt.
claimRising taxes to service the British national debt reduced capital investment in production, agriculture, and real estate, while increasing British indigency and incarceration in debtors’ prisons during the nineteenth century.
measurementThe British national debt reached a nadir of over £801 million in 1816.
perspectiveThe historical model of British national debt, characterized by corporate financing and violent market churn, mirrors modern financial systems where corporate elites avoid accountability for market volatility while financial crises destroy speculative investors and debtors.
measurementThe South Sea Company increased its custodianship of the British national debt from 23.4% to 85.3% in 1720.
perspectiveThe author argues that the debates surrounding the formation of the British national debt during the transatlantic slave trade reveal a crisis of economic injustice involving universal complicity in funding imperialism and war that persists today.
perspectiveOttobah Cugoano posits that the British national debt is not a metaphor for moral depravity but is the actual substance, cause, and effect of the nation's moral failure regarding human trafficking.
claimThe British national debt functioned as an excuse to avoid the moral imperative of communal resource distribution during times of disaster.
claimDuring the first 140 years of the British national debt, the British military was at rest for only 18 years, often fighting multiple simultaneous global conflicts to maintain control over people whose land or bodies were seized for corporate wealth.
measurementThe South Sea Company purchased £30,981,712 of unredeemed British national debt, increasing its custodianship of the total national debt from 23.4% to 85.3%.
claimThe British national debt originated in 1694 to address financial needs arising from the Nine Years' War (1688–1697) against France.
claimOttobah Cugoano argued that the British national debt was instrumental in facilitating the transatlantic slave trade and other projects of British imperialist violence.
accountThe South Sea Company held a charter to consolidate the British national debt by utilizing the presumed commercial profits derived from the transatlantic slave trade.
claimAccording to Bank of England records, the South Sea Company held the largest share of British public debt during the eighteenth century.
referenceIn his book Thoughts and Sentiments, Ottobah Cugoano argues that the interdependence of chattel slavery, national debt, and speculative markets in eighteenth-century Great Britain created a system that evaded both moral critique and the self-correction mechanisms of the free market proposed by Adam Smith.
accountPamphlet debates regarding the British national debt during the eighteenth century typically followed a recurring pattern: a writer highlighted the impoverishment of the Treasury due to wars defending the slave trade, an anonymous financier urged investors to hold stock and ignore the debt, politicians defended themselves against corruption charges, and the discourse devolved into personal attacks.
claimThe South Sea Company used wealth created by speculative finance to consolidate the British national debt.
accountThe British national debt grew due to the Nine Years’ War (1688–1697), the Great Northern War (1700–1721), and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), which included Queen Anne’s War in the American colonies.
claimThe imposition of land taxes, excises, and tariffs to service the British national debt created conflict between laborers and landowners and a new class of financiers and stockholders who profited from passive financial revenue.