Would you believe that England’s first recorded lottery started on January 11th, 1569, 450 years ago.
Where did they start?
Originally lotteries started in China around 200 BC, to fund major projects, such as building the Great Wall of China.
However, to Romans lotteries were a game played at dinner parties. Well, that was until Augustus Caesar, the Roman Emperor, needed money to repair Rome, suddenly, realised that there was easy way to raise money!
Lotteries instead of Taxes
By the middle ages, towns such as Ghent, Utrecht, and Bruges, in the Low Countries, used lotteries to pay for fortifications, buildings and help the poor. By the 17th century most Netherlands towns were funding themselves by lottery, as they were popular but the real reason was that it was a painless way to tax people!
It didn’t always work, in the 1539 King Francis I of France thought it was a super way to raise money and solve his country’s financial problems. However, it was a fiasco, the tickets cost too much and those who could pay, opposed it, which meant that for the next two centuries lotteries in France were forbidden, but occasionally tolerated!
They finally arrived in England
To England, January 11th, 1569 was the date that our government decided to sell the rights to trade lottery tickets to brokers, they in turn hired agents to actually sell them. These brokers were the first financial traders who eventually evolved into the modern day stockbrokers. Why, because people could not afford a lottery ticket, they were too expensive, so the brokers sold a share in the ticket. Think of what it has led to today, it leads to a question, are shares still a lottery?
The English Lottery ran for over 250 years, until the government, under constant pressure from the opposition in parliament, declared a final lottery in 1826.
However, there is a difference between today’s National Lottery and other lotteries and that is that it isn’t used to fund our government, it goes to charities. Well it does at the moment!
Isn’t history fun?
10 questions to discuss:
- How did the concept of lotteries evolve from being a form of entertainment at Roman dinner parties to a means of raising funds for significant projects like repairing Rome?
- What were some of the major projects funded by lotteries in ancient China, and how did this practice influence later societies?
- Why did Augustus Caesar transition lotteries from being mere entertainment to a method of raising funds for state projects?
- How did lotteries become a prevalent means of financing in the Netherlands during the 17th century, and what were the underlying reasons for their popularity?
- What were the challenges faced by King Francis I of France when he attempted to use lotteries as a solution to financial problems in 1539?
- How did lotteries in France evolve over the following centuries after King Francis I’s failed attempt, and what factors contributed to their eventual prohibition?
- In what way did the introduction of lotteries to England in 1569 pave the way for the development of modern financial trading practices?
- How did brokers in England adapt the sale of lottery tickets to make them more accessible to the general population?
- What factors led to the eventual end of the English Lottery after over 250 years of operation?
- What distinguishes the current National Lottery in England from historical lotteries in terms of its purpose and allocation of funds?
For more on lotteries:
https://www.lottoland.co.uk/magazine/history-of-the-lottery.html
https://www.pinnacle.com/en/betting-articles/educational/the-history-of-lotteries/Z5YJXP3HEG45YM3Z
https://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item102765.html
©Tony Dalton