An Eighteenth Century Budget

Extract

The budget in all its forms is attracting so much attention at the present time that we are inclined to think of it as exclusively a twentieth century institution. A small pamphlet belonging to the Business Library, however, is evidence that it had its origin at least as long ago as 1744. This very early example of a family budget, “An Estimate of the necessary Charge of a Family in the middling Station of Life, consisting of a Man, his Wife, Four Children, and One Maid-servant,” occurs in a pamphlet interesting in itself, being “An Apology for the Business of Pawn-Broking, By a Pawn-Broker.”