Read on Twitter
An important question to ponder is, does the Government borrow at all? The shorter answer is, no. For the longer answer read on, if you’ll indulge me... @MichaelRosenYes https://twitter.com/MichaelRosenYes/status/1293514758071750657">https://twitter.com/MichaelRo...
The longer answer requires delving into the historical financial practices of the ancient Exchequer, in particular the language employed, which have great relevance even today and explains why the government does not in fact borrow.
Before modern accounting methods had been developed, Exchequer accounting was carried out using wooden sticks, called tally sticks, which recorded the monetary value of financial transactions by making notches in the wood of varying sizes that equated to different sums of money.
The notched tally stick would then be split into two, lengthwise through the notches, to form a ‘stock’ and ‘foil’. The stock was given to the subject and the foil was retained in the records of the Exchequer.
Tallies were a very convenient and simple method of recording and conveying financial information in times of near universal illiteracy and innumeracy. Tally sticks were of two types: a tally of sol and a tally of pro.
The former was a record of receipt of payment into the Exchequer; the latter was a record of an Exchequer liability issued to a creditor in exchange for the supply of goods and services or a loan of money (coin).
When Tallies were struck pro, the sums they represented were recorded not only in the Exchequer books of issue, but also, crucially, in the books of receipt. As such the Exchequer was recording the (future) receipt of taxes, even though evidently receipt had not yet taken place.
Hence, tallies of pro were also called & #39;tallies of anticipation& #39; and they were therefore a record of *pre-payment* of taxes due. Ancient creditors naturally charged for such pre-payments, receiving some form of discount.
Later, when it came time to hear annual tax accounts at the Exchequer of Audit tallies of anticipation were handed back by the subject as evidence of pre-payment and if the ‘stock’ tallied with the ‘foil’, then the subject received a credit on his account...
...and thereby gained acquittance. The tally was subsequently broken and cancelled. From this process we obtain the phrases ‘tax return’ and ‘rate of return’.
The latter being the rate over time that the tallies were handed back and creditors realised their discount. Here also was the original usage of the word ‘stock’, a term nowadays synonymous with company equity.
But original ‘stock’ represented returnable pre-paid tax credits, the first form of equity. As accounting practices advanced tallies became obsolete, though their use continued until the early 19th century, and the Exchequer began to issue gilt edged paper bills - hence, gilts.
We need to include the Bank of England in this analysis as their money is the only acceptable means of paying taxes in the modern UK economy. However, the Exchequer exchanges its gilts for newly created Bank of England money, either directly or indirectly via the banking system.
However, gilts, unlike tallies, are dated financial instruments and have a fixed rate of return, making them appear like debts, as if the Exchequer were borrowing. We need to understand that these are not like debts, as historical practice and language attest.
A debt is a financial claim over another individual’s income, whereas gilts, like tallies before them, actually represent a claim over one’s own income. Gilts represent to this day a pre-payment of taxes, a form of equity. Government & #39;borrowing& #39; is a misnomer and does not apply.
Hope you’re recovering well. Best wishes. 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🙂" title="Leicht lächelndes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Leicht lächelndes Gesicht">
