[Verse 1]
Sixteen ninety-four, the guns still roar in Flanders mud and French resolve,
William's coffers thin as paper, war won't halt and war won't dissolve.
Paterson scribbles, Montagu nods, a scheme to turn the drowning into float:
lend the Crown a fortune now, we'll tax the ships, we'll tax the throat.
[Chorus]
C'est la Banque d'Angleterre, née de dette et de besoin,
One point two million pounds, eight percent, le roi signe au coin.
Quatre mille livres chaque année, just to keep the ledger clean,
Tonnage Act, the taxman's pact — c'est le prix de la machine.
[Verse 2]
Not a gift, a loan with interest, subscribers queue to buy a share,
Parliament taxes tonnage on vessels, to pay the eight percent that's fair.
Earmarked money, named and numbered, this tax for that specific debt —
call it funded, not a promise, but a pipeline wired and set.
[Chorus]
C'est la Banque d'Angleterre, née de dette et de besoin,
One point two million pounds, eight percent, le roi signe au coin.
Quatre mille livres chaque année, just to keep the ledger clean,
Tonnage Act, the taxman's pact — c'est le prix de la machine.
[Verse 3]
Before the Bank, the Treasury gambled — ninety-three's tontine took the stage,
a million pounds, survivors prosper, outlive your friends and claim the wage.
Ninety-four's Million Adventure, lottery tickets, hope for sale,
these were sketches, rough rehearsals, before the Bank could tell the tale.
[Verse 4]
Across the water, Holland's merchants lent their states at four percent,
provincial renten, excise-backed, the model William brought and sent.
England doubled Dutch arithmetic, eight percent where they paid four —
trust takes time to build its discount, the Thames still learning from the Shore.
[Bridge]
Earmark, ledger, line and promise — pas de l'air, c'est du papier signé.
Each tax a thread, each debt a garment, l'État tissé, bien ordonné.
Unfunded debt just floats on rumor; funded debt is nailed to law —
Parliament's word becomes collateral, that's the hinge, that's the pivot's flaw.
[Chorus]
C'est la Banque d'Angleterre, née de dette et de besoin,
One point two million pounds, eight percent, le roi signe au coin.
Quatre mille livres chaque année, just to keep the ledger clean,
Tonnage Act, the taxman's pact — c'est le prix de la machine.
[Outro]
Paterson, Montagu, deux noms derrière la porte,
funded debt, the hinge of empire, la dette qui nous porte.
Eight percent became tomorrow's four, the pattern never dies,
tax the tonnage, trust the ledger — c'est ainsi qu'un état survit.