SUNDERLAND

To fund the war with France in Queen Anne's reign, the National Debt was increased by voluntary loans to the Exchequer and lottery subscriptions. Even blank lottery tickets paid a small amount of interest for a term of 32 years. The interest or annuities on these and previous loans was supposed to be secured by introducing more and more taxes, but Exchequer payments were increasingly in arrears. In 1710 the South Sea Company was set up to combine the various arrangements, by inviting creditors to exchange Exchequer debt for South Sea Stock, and till the Bubble burst in 1720, more and more people did so.The £87,342 4s 5d payable by this document was due annually to those who had bought lottery tickets under 8 Anne c. 4, 1709, and who had exchanged under 5 George I c. 19 in 1719. See the marginal note to s. 6 in Pickering's Statutes at Large, 1765, Vol. 14, p. 71.In 1721, although the directors were under investigation, there was a general feeling that Sunderland was responsible for the South Sea fiasco, and he was forced to resign within days of signing this document.