Introduction

From Nswcorps

Revision as of 09:14, 7 November 2006

Isaac Cruikshank's The Soldier's Farewell-Soldiers embarking for New South Wales (1803)

Arrival of the First Fleet of Convicts in Botany Bay

The First Fleet of Convicts arrived in Botany Bay in January 1788 under the guard of a contingent of Royal Marines, but in order that they might be released for more military duties, a new regiment called the NSW Corps was raised in England in 1789 from possibly an even rougher crowd than the customary low level of army recruits, and the first contingent arrived in the colony with the Second Fleet in June 1790.

Coinage

Central to any real understanding of the financial activities of the NSW Corps it is essential to bear in mind that at this period of time, 'money' to the man in the street almost invariably meant coins alone, of gold, silver and copper, all effectively worth the intrinsic value of the metal from which they were struck, and that for all practical purposes there was no money in general circulation in NSW during the twenty-year period under discussion, other than a small supply of copper pennies which arrived late in 1800 and circulated as legal tender for twice their face value. All internal transactions tended to be made by payments in kind, by barter, or with promissory notes of one kind or another - some of dubious worth!

Early Economy

The Early Economy was based almost exclusively on the bare and very basic feeding and clothing of a convict population, for which the above methods of payment were probably adequate, but entirely useless if any of the luxuries of life (rum, tobacco, tea, sugar etc.) were to be purchased from the very few visiting ships. The ships' captains would part with their goods only in exchange for something of real worth, and there being virtually nothing to export during these early years, nor gold or silver coins - (any brought out by the early arrivals would have left the colony with the first ship to arrive with goods for sale) - prospects for the purchase of foreign imports were almost non-existent. Bills of exchange (cheques) offered by individual civil or military officers were unlikely to be acceptable, for these officers were generally unknown to the ships' captains, and their supposed accounts might in any case not even exist, or have any money in them, and anything up to eighteen months might elapse before one even found out!

Trustworthy Bills of Exchange

Trustworthy Bills of Exchange acceptable to visiting ships' captains, or by merchants in Calcutta, Cape Town or Canton etc., could be offered, however, by the Paymaster of the NSW Corps in respect of the regimental pay of say £500 per month until 1797 and £1000 thereafter (probably worth £50,000 and £100,000 in today' money) regularly provided by the British Treasury to the regimental bankers in London. With all this money in London at their disposal, the officers of the Corps were in a rare and virtually monopolistic position to buy all such goodies as were on offer, and they took very full advantage of this situation until at least 1800, selling the rum etc. at a vast profit!

Regimental Pay

If the Regimental Pay was being diverted to buy this rum and other luxuries, were the ordinary soldiers paid their 'shilling a day' (or whatever), and if so, in what precise form? This, perhaps, is the major question that this Paper needs to investigate and on which comments from interested readers are particularly invited.

Loss of Monopoly

During the Period 1800 - 1809 the NSW Corps officers lost their trading monopoly as rival traders set up in business and a few export trades in seal skins and whale oil etc. developed. Perhaps only 50% or less of the regimental funds could then be diverted to the purchase of imports of rum etc., but the other 50% was still available for the private use of the officers of the NSW Corps, and a good example of the opportunities offered by the regimental funds is furnished from the 1800 Pay Sheets: . . .

Paymaster Cox

A new regimental lieutenant Paymaster Cox arrived in the colony on 11th January 1800 and assumed his duties at the start of the new pay month on the 25th January. By the 18th of February he had already issued four bills of exchange on the regimental funds, three of which totalling £2040 were almost certainly for his private purchases of the trading stock and a flock of merino sheep from two civil officers retiring home to England, yet he was still able to remit £500 back home during that first year of office! By November 1802 he had become the third largest landholder and farmer in the colony - (the largest being the previous paymaster Macarthur!) The new paymaster continued his spending spree, even drawing bills in excess of the funds building up in London, and in March 1803 someone must have blown the whistle and he was made bankrupt for the amount of the overdrawings, suspended from office and returned to England for obfuscating the accounts. Seemingly, however, no charges were ever brought in respect of his diversion of the regimental funds to his own use!

Later History of the NSW Corps

In August 1806 a strong new Governor arrived to exercise some control over the activities of the aptly named 'Rum Corps' - none other than Captain Bligh of the Bounty mutiny fame - but even he met his match here, and in January 1808 the officers of the NSW Corps deposed him, kept him under arrest, and took over control of the colony for the next couple of years. When news of the coup reached England the Government appointed a military Governor with his own regiment (the 73rd - now part of the Black Watch?) on whom he could rely for support and to enforce his orders, rather the previous naval officer Governors. The NSW Corps were withdrawn, renumbered the 102nd Regiment, given a new commander - the then Lt.Col. Charles James Napier whose statue stands in Trafalgar Square - and saw some fighting in the United States in 1813 before being disbanded in 1818.