Forms: 5 fenaunce, 5–6 fin-, fynaunce, (5 fynance), 5– finance. [a. OF. finance, n. of action f. finer to end, to settle a dispute or a debt, pay ransom, to bargain for, to furnish, procure, f. fin: see FINE sb. The senses now current are adopted from mod.Fr.
Johnson 1755 and some mod. Dicts. mark the stress on the first syllable, though all editions, of Bailey (1721–90) have the stress on the second syllable, which is now usual.]
† 1. Ending, an end. Obs. rare.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst. (1841), 223.
| Laȝarus. God, that alle thynge dede make of nowth, | |
| And puttyst each creature to his fenaunce. |
1616. in Bullokar.
† 2. a. Settlement with a creditor; payment of a debt; compensation or composition paid or exacted. Obs.
c. 1400. Beryn, 2534. To make for yeur wrongis to ȝew riȝte hiȝe fenaunce.
14[?]. Lament. Mary Magd. (Chaucer’s Wks., 1561). There is no more, but dethe is my fynaunce.
c. 1470. Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, VIII. 926. Thar finance maid, delyuerit gold full sone.
† b. esp. A payment for release from captivity or punishment; a ransom. Phrase, to put to (one’s) finance = Fr. mettre à finance. Obs.
1439. Rolls Parl., V. 22/1. Where as the seid Countesse … hath made a Lone of a MCCli. to the seid Erle of Somerset, for the payment of his fenaunce.
1475. The Boke of Noblesse, 14. The said king Johan was put to finaunce and raunson of thre millions of scutis of golde.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. cccxi. 193. Ye other knyghtes … were put to their fynaunce.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 120. The sayde Foulkes after he had lyen a certaine of tyme in prison, was for his finance delivered.
1597. Guistard & Sismond, B ij. I for your finaunce give that ye love best.
† 3. Supply (of goods); stock of money; treasure, substance. To make finance [= OF. faire finance]: to furnish supplies. Obs.
1475. The Boke of Noblesse, 9. Thoroughe lak of provision of men of armes, tresour, and finaunce of suffisaunt nombre of goodes, in season and tyme convenable to wage and reliefe them.
1489. Act Dom. Conc., 129. That nain of thaim … supple the said James in making of fynance or vtherwais.
1502. Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W., 1506), IV. xxi. 225. Yf the procurer or tuter of ony faderlesse chyldren gyueth theyr fynaunce unto usurye.
1691–1732. in Coles.
† 4. Borrowing of money at interest. Obs.
1552. Chamberlain, Let., 8 Jan., in Strype, Eccl. Mem., II. xiii. 349. He [the Emperor] sought nevertheless to have what he could by finance, and other means.
1721. Strypte Ibid., II. xiii. 350. There was no money to be had at finance in Antwerp under 16 in the hundred for one year.
† 5. A tax; taxation; the revenues of a sovereign or state (in pl. passing into 6). Obs.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., III. xiv. 200. A prynce that wyl make werre ought before hande to aduyse and see where & how hys fynaunce shal be made and taken.
1548. Hall, Chron. (1809), 161. In like robes folowed the Lordes of the Chamber of accomptes, of the finaunce.
c. 1598. Lambarde, Office of Alienations, in Bacon’s Wks. 1778, II. 401. All the finances or revenues of the imperial crown of this realm of England be either extraordinary or ordinary.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, II. VII. 306. Bulion, at that time a Counsellor of State, and since Sur-Intendant of the Finances.
6. pl. The pecuniary resources, a. primarily, of a sovereign or state; b. transf. of a company or an individual.
a. 1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. 33. To their wisdom was committed the supreme administration of justice and of the finances, the two objects which, in a state of peace, comprehend almost all the respective duties of the sovereign and of the people.
1845. McCulloch, Taxation, III. ii. (1852), 444. Few things, therefore, would, we conceive, be more injurious than the establishment of any system in the management of the finances of a great nation, that might possibly tend to generate and spread those purely selfish and unsocial passions, which lead individuals to consider their own interests as everything, and those of others as nothing.
b. 1739. Cibber, Apol. (1756), I. 169. The Finances of the other House, held it not above one Season more, before they were reduced to the same Expedient of making the like scanty Payments.
1766. Cowper, Wks. (1837), XV. 13. My finances will never be able to satisfy these craving necessities, without leaving my debt to you entirely unsatisfied.
1783. C. J. Fox, Sp. E. India Bill, 1 Dec., in Sp. (1815), II. 247. The finances of the East India company were mis-stated by me, and time was desired to prove that.
1842. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Sir Rupert, 16.
| Till these, and a few less defensible fancies, | |
| Brought the Knight to the end of his slender finances. |
¶ c. Expenditure. ? nonce-use.
1730. Gay, Lett. to Swift, 6 Dec. (1766), II. 118. The duchess is a more severe check upon my finances than ever you were.
7. The management of money, esp. public money; the science which concerns itself with the levying and application of revenue in a state, corporation, etc. † Man of finance = FINANCIER.
1770. Junius Lett., xxxix. 201. His first enterprise in finance.
1814. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp., XII. 119. The law on finance yesterday passed the House of Peers.
1816. Bentham, A Protest of Law-Taxes, Wks. 1843, II. 581. It is too much to expect of a man of finance, that he should anticipate the feelings of unknown individuals: it is a great deal if he will listen to their cries.
1845. McCulloch, Taxation, III. i. (1852), 417. No scheme of finance can be bottomed on sound principles which disguises these necessary consequences of war.
8. attrib. and Comb., as finance-chamber, committee, -minister (sense 7); † finance-making vbl. sb. (sense 2 b).
1845. S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., III. 251. The emperor had already been reminded that the conquered provinces of Italy did not belong to him, but to the empire; and had been required to restore to the empire its *finance chambers (Kammern), especially those of Milan and Genoa.
1807. Morn. Chron., in Spir. Publ. Jrnls. (1808), XI. 112. That *Finance Committee.
a. 1467. Gregory, Chron., 152. Withowte anny [of] *fynaunce makynge or ramsom.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., Wks. 1808, V. 405. The plain obvious duty of a common *finance minister.
1845. McCulloch, Taxation, III. iii. (1852), 468. Our finance ministers can claim no credit for peculiar expertness or ability in this respect.
