The Civil List Act 1760 (1 Geo. 3 c. 1) was an Act of the

Parliament of Great Britain The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in May 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The Acts ratified the treaty of Union which created a new unified Kingdo ...

passed upon the accession of

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

. The Act transferred almost all

Civil List A civil list is a list of individuals to whom money is paid by the government, typically for service to the state or as honorary pensions. It is a term especially associated with the United Kingdom and its former colonies of Canada, India, New Zeal ...

revenues (mainly customs and excise) to Parliament. In the last year of George II's reign these had been worth £876,988. In return, the new King received a fixed, annual Civil List of £800,000. Under George II the economy had grown and consequently the revenues increased. The fixed amount George III received was therefore a reduction in the Civil List. If the previous arrangement had been retained, George III's Civil List in 1777 would have been more than £1,000,000 and would have amounted to £1,812,308 in 1798. The £800,000 stipulated in the Act was soon found to be inadequate and a Civil List crisis was only averted in the early 1760s because George II had built up savings worth £172,000 that George III was able to draw on. By the end of the decade the Civil List arrears amounted to more than half a million pounds and the King had to apply to Parliament to pay it off.Reitan, pp. 324-5.

Notes

{{reflist Great Britain Acts of Parliament 1760