The convoluted financial system of the 18th century British Army was difficult to understand then, as it is now. The Paymaster General submitted annually to the Treasury an estimate of the funds required for the service of the Army. The Treasury simply paid it over, without checking what was already on hand, or that the supporting calculations were correct. The Paymaster General passed the money to the Regimental Agent, who then passed it to the Regimental Paymaster. The Regimental Paymaster, a position held by an officer of the regiment, would pass it to the Captains of the Companies, who in turn disbursed it to the men.

The money allotted to the pay of a regiment was allocated in six different ways.

• 1. Poundage - one shilling in the pound from the pay of the whole army.
  • a. Return-poundage - any refunding of the deduction
    
  • b. Contribution to Chelsea Hospital
    
  • c. Exchequer - fees and salaries of Paymaster General and other officials.
    

• 2. Contribution to Chelsea Hospital of 8d (one full day's pay).
  

• 3. Subsistence - that fraction of every man's pay which remained after all stoppages.
  

• 4. Allowance for Widows - This was the pay of 2 fictitious men in every company, and was entrusted to the Paymaster of Widow's Pensions, who extracted from every widow an initial fee of 2 guineas on her first drawing her pension, and an annual fee of 6 shillings in addition.
  

• 5. Off-Reckonings - the various stoppages for clothing and other matters which acounted for the difference between full pay and subsistence.
  

• 6. Clearings
  • a. Arrears - of Commissioned Officers (corresponding to the off-reckonings of the private soldier)
    
  • b. Agency - 2d in the Pound on the full pay of the regiment, for the Agency's profit.
    
  • c. "So much of the soldier's subsistence as had not been issued under the name of subsistence"
    

Various other moneys involved are:

The Allowance to Colonels was made up of:

• a. The subsistence of one fictitious man for his own use,
  
• b. the "gross off-reckonings" of four fictitious men
  

The Allowance to Captains was the susbsistence of two fictitious men, for expenses of recruiting, which was placed by the Agent to the credit of the "non-effective" fund.

The Allowance to the Agent was the subsistence of one man for his own use

Since these allowances were all under the guise of pay to fictitious men, this led to endless confusion, and some dishonesty that was almost impossible to detect.

A Private Soldier's subsistence of £9-2-6 per annum was supposedly applied to cost of food, yet 6d a week was subtracted for shoes, stockings, gaiters, medicines, shaving, and the repair of his arms.

Prior to 1771, 1d per week retained as a fee by regimental paymaster, and shared between him and the surgeon.

The gross off-reckonings of £3-0-10 per annum went towards poundage, hospital, & agency. The remainder (net off-reckonings) was applied to the cost of soldier's clothing.

As you can see, and as was reported in Observations on the Prevailing Abuses in the British Army... 1775:
"From the eight pence per day which is issued for the pay of a soldier, when all deductions are made, for clothing, for necessaries, for washing, for the paymaster, for the surgeon, and for the multiplied articles of useless and unmilitary fopperies, (introduced by colonels to the oppression of the soldier for what they call the credit and appearance of the regiment) there is not sufficient overplus for healthful subsistence; and as to the little enjoyments and recreations, which even the meanest of men can call their own in any country, the brave, the honorable, the veteran soldier, must not aspire to."

Further Reading:
The British Army in the American Revolution by Edward E. Curtis

Back