Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
Up, and to the office, where all the morning doing business, and at noon home to dinner and quickly back again to the office, where very busy all the evening and late sent a long discourse to Mr. Coventry by his desire about the regulating of the method of our payment of bills in the Navy, which will be very good, though, it may be, he did ayme principally at striking at Sir G. Carteret. So weary but pleased with this business being over I home to supper and to bed.
Wednesday 22 November 1665Monday 20 November 1665
“late sent a long discourse to Mr. Coventry by his desire about the regulating of the method of our payment of bills in the Navy, which will be very good, though, it may be, he did ayme principally at striking at Sir G. Carteret.”
L&M explain: “In June, on Carteret’s initiative, the Board had begun to pay its bills in course by numbering them in the order in which they were received…. [A fundamental procedural innovation in the handling of accounts payable!!!] [which] was now more than ever necessary if merchants were to be persuaded to provide supplies on the credit of parliament under the recent act of supply.” See 6 November annotation: http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1665/11/06/#c264303
On 8 December Pepys records how what L&M call “payment in course” was adopted to come into force on 1 January 1666. http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1665/12/08/
“sent a long discourse to Mr. Coventry … he did ayme principally at striking at Sir G. Carteret. …”
Per L&M’s footnote to today’s entry: “… Pepys thought that payment in course, though desirable, was impracticable in the face of the difficulty of finding cash. …” Payments, under the recent act of supply, were to be made directly from the Exchequer. “… Carteret would loose his poundage. *Spoiler* (Pepys in a letter of 14 December offered him the consolation that this would be more than offset by the Duke’s increased regard for him). …”
At the cat’s tail no longer, eh, Sir George?
Sir Will Coventry is steadily making a heap of enemies in his technocrat crusade, I see. It will be interesting to watch where exactly Sam…His heart with Coventry on the side of reform and technical expertise…His head on the side of protecting Samuel Pepys from possible reprisals…ends up standing. Tough situation for any good man with no real power of his own.
Always follow the money trail, at least the Vendors will be in sequence, be coming with their bills of request, not with tin cups and six HP land cruisers and footmen to boot to be bailed out.
Payment of bills still be a problem, centuries later.
[look into the future near and centuries]
Penn jr. be learning and waiting for his bail out and will be paid off in land shares with good derivative aspects.
Carteret & his genes, leads to New Jersey and Carolina and even to a mortgage bank, on lessons being taught now by the service civil.