Finances of a Longer Seven Years' War

Pitt the Elder wanted the continue the war for another year but when the political situation changed was forced to give way to Lord Bute who negotiated what was seen as the overly generous Treaty of Paris, so I was wondering what might of happened had he managed to get his extra year and been in charge of the peace negotiations. The main problem with an Eight Years' War is that all the combatants' economies were under a lot of stress with as I understand things France, Prussia, and Austria pretty much exhausted, Britain in probably the best shape but still rough, and Spain somewhere in the middle.

So my question is can anyone tell me how naval prize money and monies from captured towns and cities was divided - was it all shared between the military personnel who captured it or did the did the government receive a percentage as well? The British were potentially in a position to capture the Spanish treasure fleet, plus an extra year to extract more of the Manila ransom, but that only really helps if part of it would make its way to the government's coffers though. Thanks.
 
I gotta think the Admiralty and government and Crown would get a cut.
Well that's the thing, I've done some searches since I haven't been able to get to the library yet and annoyingly most of the results seem to mirror Wikipedia, often right down to the wording. Blasted Curse of Wikipedia. They've got it down as being shared out amongst the commanding admirals, captains, officers, and crews but no mention of the government. So I thought I'd ask here.
 
Pitt the Elder wanted the continue the war for another year but when the political situation changed was forced to give way to Lord Bute who negotiated what was seen as the overly generous Treaty of Paris, so I was wondering what might of happened had he managed to get his extra year and been in charge of the peace negotiations. The main problem with an Eight Years' War is that all the combatants' economies were under a lot of stress with as I understand things France, Prussia, and Austria pretty much exhausted, Britain in probably the best shape but still rough, and Spain somewhere in the middle.

So my question is can anyone tell me how naval prize money and monies from captured towns and cities was divided - was it all shared between the military personnel who captured it or did the did the government receive a percentage as well? The British were potentially in a position to capture the Spanish treasure fleet, plus an extra year to extract more of the Manila ransom, but that only really helps if part of it would make its way to the government's coffers though. Thanks.

AFAIK (Wikipedia, in fact), the entire value of the Tetis and the Santa Brigata, taken by the RN in 1799, was 618,040£. Each of the four captains received 40,730£, were his part should have been 3/8 of the prize money (pre-1808). So, if I do my maths good (which may be not), the prize money was 434,453£. The remainder was 183,587£, I suppose it went to the Crown. As I read on wiki, a 64-guns man-of-war (HMS Agamemnon) was 38,303£ in 1781. So a treasure fleet could help only marginally.
 
AFAIK (Wikipedia, in fact), the entire value of the Tetis and the Santa Brigata, taken by the RN in 1799, was 618,040£. Each of the four captains received 40,730£, were his part should have been 3/8 of the prize money (pre-1808). So, if I do my maths good (which may be not), the prize money was 434,453£. The remainder was 183,587£, I suppose it went to the Crown. As I read on wiki, a 64-guns man-of-war (HMS Agamemnon) was 38,303£ in 1781. So a treasure fleet could help only marginally.
Well Pitt wanted to declare war on Spain using the Bourbon Family Comapact as a casus belli and seize the Spanish treasure fleet, he'd had ships positioned to be able to attack before the escorts the Spanish were planning to send out could meet it if ordered, but he couldn't convince the other members of the Cabinet to agree. The treasure fleet that year was apparently carrying 17 million pesos, I'm strangely having a hard time pinning down an exchange rate with some sites saying that it would be worth £3.3 million and others up to £4.7 million so if your post about the government taking a 30% cut is right that would translate to between £1 million and £1.4 million. That would potentially be enough to at least pay the subsidy to Prussia for 1762 and 1763 at the top end or at a reduced rate considering that Prussia had stopped offensive operations due to exhaustion.
 
Top