Government debt has once again become a cause for concern. Current political debates include the relative merits of reducing the debt burden or resisting government cuts. However, few people think that the debt can be done away with completely. In fact, there are economic arguments for its existence. The history of the public debt in England, and Britain as a whole, predates modern economic theory.
The contemporary debates from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are very different to those of modern economists. For example, some people believed that there should be no long-term government debt at all. Others argued that the existence of the debt would undermine the country’s independence and put foreigners in charge. Parts of these arguments still survive today, especially in the political ideas of extremists.
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