|
Site Links
Sister Sites
HM TREASURY BUDGET DATA
HM TREASURY PESA DATA
UK Government Spending From 1600 to Present
by Christopher Chantrill
November 18, 2008
A LONGER perspective on government spending in the UK is given in A Farewell to Alms by Gregory Clark. Back in the early 1600s during the reign of the Stuarts, government spending was about two percent of GNP. It rose after the Glorious Revolution to 10 percent of GNP.
Government spending rose throughout the 1700s as Britain under the Whigs fought wars in Europe and North America, and peaked at 30 percent of GNP during the Napoleonic Wars.
After Napoleon was sent to St. Helena, government spending went down, bottoming out at about 8 percent in 1875 before beginning a century-long increase in the 20th century.
Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.
Budget News
Autumn Statement 2011
Chancellor George Osborne introduces six more years of pain.
Budget 2011: George Osborne set for 8bn pound windfall
Treasury revenue up, so no spending cuts in Budget 2011
2011 Budget - HM Treasury
Budget Day is Wednesday 23 March 2011.
> archive
Quick Links
Get spending chart.
Download spending table.
Download spending data series.
Review data sources.
Masthead
ukpublicspending.co.uk was designed and executed by:
Christopher Chantrill.
Report bugs here.
Mutual Aid
In 1911... at least nine million of the 12 million covered by national insurance were already members of voluntary sick pay schemes. A similar proportion were also eligible for medical care.
Green, Reinventing Civil Society