At present there are two kinds of lottery in Europe. One is called
the Italian or Genoese lotto, or merely the lotto; the other is the
common lottery well known in England. Of the former, which has been
long proved to be attended with great deception, and must soon be
universally acknowledged to be hurtful, I do not mean here to treat,
but only of the latter, which at any rate may be honourable or
harmless, if we do not take into account the delusion it occasions to
credulous and ignorant people, by exciting hopes which have little
probability in their favour. I however do not promise a complete
history of this invention: it experienced so many changes before it
acquired its present form, that to give a full account of them would be
tiresome to me as well as to the reader.
I shall not either, as some have done, reckon among the first traces of
lotteries every division of property made by lot, otherwise it might be
said, that Joshua partitioned the promised land into lottery-prizes,
before it was conquered. In my opinion the peculiarity of lotteries
consists in this, that numbers are distributed gratuitously, or, as
in our public lotteries, for a certain price, and it is then left to
chance to determine what numbers are to obtain the prizes, the value
of which is previously settled. The various conditions and changes
invented by ingenuity to entice people to purchase shares, and to
conceal and increase the gain of the undertakers, are not here taken
into consideration, because they do not appear to be essential.
In the whole history of antiquity, I find nothing which has a greater
resemblance to our lotteries than the _congiaria_ of the Romans;
and I am inclined to think that the latter furnished the first hint
for the establishment of the former. Rich persons at Rome, as is
well known, and particularly the emperors, when they wished to gain
or to strengthen the attachment of the people, distributed among
them presents, consisting of eatables and other expensive articles,
which were named _congiaria_. In general, tokens or tickets called
_tesseræ_[1023] were given out, and the possessors of these, on
presenting them at the store or magazine of the donor, received
those things which they announced. In many cases these tickets were
distributed _viritim_, that is, to every person who applied for them;
and in that case these donations had a resemblance to our distributions
of bread, but not to our lotteries, in which chance must determine the
number of those who are to participate in the things distributed.
But in the course of time it became customary to call the people
together, and to throw among them, from a stage, the articles intended
for distribution, in the same manner as money is scattered among the
populace at the coronation of the emperor, and on other solemnities.
Such things, in this case, were called _missilia_, and belonged to
those who had the good fortune to catch them. But as oil, wine, corn
and other articles of the like kind, could not be distributed by
throwing them in this manner, and as some articles were so much injured
by the too great eagerness of the people, that they could be of little
or no use, tokens or tickets were thrown out in their stead. At first
these were square pieces of wood or metal, but sometimes also balls of
wood inscribed with the name of the article which the possessor was
to receive from the magazine[1024]. Like bank-notes they were payable
to the bearer; and those who had obtained _tesseræ_ were allowed to
transfer or to sell them to others. This is proved by a passage in
Juvenal[1025], where allusion however is made only to the _tesseræ
frumentariæ_, which were not thrown out, but distributed.
Imitations of these Roman _congiaria_, but indeed on a very reduced
scale, have been employed in modern times by princes and princesses,
in order to amuse themselves with distributing small presents to their
courtiers. For this purpose various trinkets or toys are marked with
numbers; these numbers are written upon separate tickets, which are
rolled up and put into a small basket or basin. Each of the company
then draws one out, and receives as a present the article marked with
the same number. These small _congiaria_ were formerly called in German
_glückstöpfe_, or _glückshäfen_; and in the course of time the present
lotteries took their rise from them.
In Italy, where commerce, as is well known, was first formed into a
regular system, and where the principal mercantile establishments and
useful regulations were invented, the merchants or shopkeepers, even in
the middle ages, were accustomed, in order that they might sell their
wares in a speedier manner and with more advantage, to convert their
shops into a _glücksbude_, where each person for a small sum of money
was allowed to draw a number from the _glückstöpfe_ (jar of fortune),
which entitled him to the article written upon it. At first governments
gave themselves very little trouble about this mode of selling
merchandise. But as the shopkeepers gained excessive profits, and
cheated the credulous people by setting on their wares an extravagant
price, which was concealed by the blanks, these _glückshäfen_ were
forbidden, or permitted only under strict inspection, and in the course
of time on paying a certain sum to the poor, or to the sovereign. In
Germany they are still retained at many of the annual fairs; but in
most countries they are subject to many limitations.
From these _glückshäfen_ were produced our lotteries, when articles
of merchandise were no longer employed as prizes, but certain
sums of money, the value of which was determined by the amount of
the money received, after the expenses and gain required by the
undertakers were deducted, and when the tickets were publicly drawn by
charity-boys blindfolded. As these lotteries could not be conducted
without defrauding the adventurers, it was at first believed, through
old-fashioned conscientiousness, that it was unlawful to take advantage
of the folly and credulity of the people, but for pious or charitable
purposes.
Lotteries were then established by private persons, and in the course
of time even by governments; and the clear gain was applied to the
purpose of portioning poor young women, of redeeming slaves, of forming
funds for the indigent, and to other objects of beneficence. It was
also hoped that these public games of hazard would banish other kinds
still more dangerous; and no one suspected that the exposing of
tickets for sale, and the division of them, so that one could purchase
an eighth or even a smaller share, would maintain and diffuse the taste
of the public for gambling. This, however, increased; and the profit
of lotteries became so great, that princes and ministers were induced
to employ them as an operation of finance, and to hold the bank which
always enriched the undertakers. People were then forbidden to purchase
tickets in foreign lotteries, that the money won from the adventurers
might pass into the sovereign’s treasury, or at any rate be retained
in the country; and in order that tickets might be disposed of sooner
and with more certainty, many rulers were so shameless as to pay the
salaries of their servants partly in tickets, and to compel guild
companies and societies to expend in lotteries what money they had
saved[1026].
Of the oldest lotteries among the Italians I have not been able to
find any account. Varchi, who wrote about the year 1537, relates
that during a great scarcity of money at Florence in 1530, a lottery
was established for the benefit of the state, and that the price of
a ticket was a ducat. He however does not employ the term lottery,
but uses the words _un lotto_, and calls a ticket _polizza_, a term
which, as is well known, is generally used in regard to insurance. Le
Bret says, that at Venice, in 1572, the inspection of lotteries was
entrusted to the _proveditori del commune_; but as he does not mention
the historian from whom this account is borrowed, the word which he
translates lottery cannot be known. We nevertheless learn from his
account, that this game was established at Venice in the middle of the
sixteenth century, and placed under the inspection of the government.
It is certain that the chance game which gave rise to lotteries was
brought from Italy to France under the name of _blanque_, a word formed
from the Italian _bianca_. The greater part of the tickets drawn were
always white paper, _carta bianca_, consequently blanks; and because
that word occurred oftenest in drawing, it gave rise to the general
appellation. Hence also is derived the phrase _trouver blanque_, to
obtain nothing, to get a blank, or to lose. At the time Pasquier
wrote[1027], that is, in the last half of the sixteenth century, the
name _numero_ was also usual, because the numbers of the tickets, which
were then called _devises_, were announced in the time of drawing.
This name, instead of _nombre_, confirms the Italian origin. As each
person in the time of drawing was attentive to his number, the phrase
_entendre le numero_ was applied to those who knew or did not forget
their numbers. Hence the expression, as Pasquier remarks, _Il entend
le numero_, which is still said of those who know their own interest,
or understand how to pursue it. Frisch and others, therefore, in their
dictionaries have derived it improperly from the numbers with which
merchants marked their goods.
In France also the first _blanques_ (lotteries) had no other prizes
than articles of merchandise; and on that account they were set on
foot only by merchants. But in the year 1539 Francis I. endeavoured to
turn them to his own advantage by imitating the public establishment
of them usual at Venice, Florence, and Genoa. He permitted these games
of chance under the inspection of certain members of the government,
with a view, as was pretended, of banishing deceptive and pernicious
games of chance, on condition that for every ticket, _devise_ or
_mise_[1028], a _teston de dix sols six deniers_ should be given
to the king. But however small the sum required may have been, this
_blanque_ was not filled up in the course of two years, and the king
was obliged to recommend it by an order issued in the month of February
1541; yet it is not known whether it was ever completed[1029].
In the years 1572 and 1588, Louis de Gonzague, duke de Nivernois
and Rethelois, established a _blanque_ at Paris, for the purpose of
giving marriage portions to poor virtuous young women belonging to his
estates. No lottery was ever drawn with so much ceremony and parade.
Before the drawing, which began every year on Palm Sunday, mass was
said; the servants employed were obliged to swear that they would
act in a faithful and impartial manner; and even Sextus V. gave to
those who should promote this good work remission of their sins. The
prize tickets were inscribed as follows: _Dieu vous a élue_, or _Dieu
vous console_. The former ensured to the young woman who drew it 500
francs, which were paid to her on her wedding-day; the latter was the
inscription of blanks, but suggested the hope of being more fortunate
the year following[1030].
This example induced ladies of quality from time to time to establish
similar _blanques_ (lotteries) for benevolent purposes. Some destined
the profit to the building or repairing of certain churches and
convents. Three ladies, whose names history has not thought proper
to communicate, set on foot a lottery containing a certain number of
tickets at forty sous each, and employed the gain in redeeming, by
means of the Mathurines or Patres, as they were called, persons who
had fallen into slavery among the Turks. On one occasion a _blanque_
or lottery of a very singular nature was instituted by some ladies, in
order to raise a fund for their spiritual guide or confessor, who had
been chosen bishop, but had no property, that they might purchase for
him a carriage and horses, with every thing necessary to support his
ecclesiastical dignity. Each of these grateful ladies was obliged to
procure or present to him the article announced by the ticket she had
drawn, “pour le remercier, par cette petite largesse, pour le bon ordre
qu’il avoit apporté à leurs consciences.”
But these games of chance occur much oftener in the French history,
as the means employed to make valuable presents to ladies and other
persons of distinction. The largest, in all probability, is that by
which Cardinal Mazarine endeavoured to increase his splendour, and
render himself more popular among the courtiers. The tickets were
distributed as presents; each was a prize, and the prizes were rarities
of various kinds, and of different values. This, says the historian,
was perhaps the first time that fortune did good to all and hurt to no
one[1031].
That these games of chance became in the middle of the seventeenth
century lotteries, in the proper sense of the word, is unanimously
asserted by all the French historians who have touched on this subject,
though in some circumstances they differ from each other. In the year
1644, Laurence Tonti came from Naples to Paris, and during a scarcity
of money which then prevailed, proposed that kind of life-rents or
annuities which at present are named after him _Tontines_, though they
were used in Italy long before his time. But after tedious disputes
in regard to his proposal, which was at length rejected, he gave in
its stead a new plan for a large _blanque_, or lottery, which in 1656
obtained the royal approbation. It was to consist of 50,000 tickets,
each at two _Louis d’ors_, so that the whole receipt would amount to
1,100,000 livres; but it is to be recollected that a _Louis d’or_ at
that time was only eleven livres. Of this sum 540,000 livres were to
be deducted for building a stone bridge and an aqueduct. The expenses
of the _blanque_ were estimated at 60,000 livres, and the remaining
500,000 were to be divided into prizes, the highest of which was 30,000
livres. But this _blanque royale_, for so it was called, was never
filled up, and consequently never drawn. On this account it was found
necessary to construct a wooden bridge in the room of that which had
been burnt. As complaints were often made by mercantile people in
regard to the disposal of merchandise in this manner, which had been
hitherto permitted, and as this practice had evidently injured the
_blanque royale_, the former in the month of January 1658 was entirely
forbidden.
In the year 1660, when the conclusion of peace and the marriage of
Louis XIV. were celebrated, the first lottery on the plan of Tonti
was set on foot at Paris. It was drawn publicly under the inspection
of the police. A ticket cost only a _Louis d’or_, and the highest
prize was 100,000 livres. This was won by the king himself; but he
would not receive it, and left it to the next lottery in which he
had no ticket[1032]. This was soon followed by several others. On
that account, in the year 1661, all private lotteries were expressly
forbidden under severe penalties, and this prohibition was repeated in
1670, 1681, 1687, and 1700[1033]. Since that time there have been no
other lotteries but the _loteries royales_, the profits of which were,
in general, applied to public buildings, as was the case in regard to
the magnificent church of St. Sulpice, and on that account they met
with great support.
Sauval, and some others, ascribe the introduction of lotteries
to a person from Lyons, named De Chuyes, who by profession was a
gold-beater, but had a great knowledge of trade. He afterwards
undertook long sea voyages, and published a book entitled, La Guide des
Chemins de Paris, redigée par ordre alphabetique. His name however does
not occur in any of the king’s patents, but that only of Tonti.
This De Chuyes, according to Sauval, first proposed the name _lottery_,
then usual in Italy, which however the other persons concerned did
not approve. In particular, the well-known De Vaugelas, who had been
chosen director of the undertaking, and who thereby hoped to pay his
debts, strongly opposed it, and recommended the title _blanque royale_,
though, in consequence of the many deceptions practised in the old
games of chance known under that name, it was not likely to become
popular. This much is certain, that the name lottery was first used
in France about the year 1658; for the order before-mentioned of 1656
has the name _blanque_, but in that of 1658, the word lottery occurs
for the first time, and in that of 1661 we find _espèce de blanque et
loterie_, and in that of 1670, _loteries et blanques_.
It is certain that the name was much earlier used in Italy and
other countries, though Varchi employs only the word _Lotto_. I am
acquainted with no older mention of the name Lottery than that in the
passage quoted by Menage, from a letter of Christopher Longolius, or,
as he is called by the French, Longueuil. It certainly seems to show
that lotteries, in the first half of the sixteenth century, were new;
but I doubt much whether it can be proved from it that the name is of
French, and not Italian extraction, as Menage thinks, because Longolius
generally gave himself out as a Frenchman, though he was born at
Mechlin in 1490. As the name is much newer in France, and as the letter
was written from Padua, where Longolius died in 1522, it is far more
probable that the name had its origin in Italy[1034].
In the last place, this letter was written a short time before
Longolius’s death; for he mentions the election of pope Adrian, which
took place the same year.
The name lottery has been used also by Simon Majolus, who describes the
oldest manner in which it was conducted[1035]; but I have not been able
to find at what time this Italian ecclesiastic wrote, though in all
probability about the end of the sixteenth century. However it is still
doubtful whether he was the author of the portion of the work referred
to; for it is known that the greater part of the Dies Caniculares,
published under his name, was written by Petrus Draudius, who died in
the year 1630.
The word _Lot_, in many ancient as well as modern languages, and
particularly in the English, Swedish, Danish and Dutch, has the same
signification as _sors_, and is evidently the _lotto_ of the Italians,
and the _los_ or _loos_ of the Germans; consequently there is no
proof that the word lottery is of French extraction, as Menage has
supposed[1036].
In England the first lottery was proposed in the years 1567 and 1568,
and, as the historian says, held at the west door of St. Paul’s
Cathedral, and was drawn day and night[1037], from the 11th of January
1569, to the 6th of May the same year. It contained 400,000 tickets,
at ten shillings each. The prizes consisted partly in money, and
partly of silver plate and other articles. The net profit was to be
employed in improving the English harbours. The Antiquarian Society
of London have still in their possession the original scheme, as it
was then printed[1038]; from which it appears that the name lottery
was at that time used in England. [In the year 1612 a lottery was
drawn for the benefit of the English colonies in Virginia; permission
was granted by special favour of king James I.; the largest prize in
which, being silver-plate to the value of 4000 crowns, fell to the
share of a tailor. In 1620 lotteries were suspended, in consequence of
a representation from the House of Commons that they were prejudicial
to the morals of the nation; but one was afterwards permitted in 1630,
by a special license from king Charles I., in aid of the expenses of
a project for conveying water to London; and Anderson[1039] says that
this is the first time that lotteries are mentioned either in the
_Fœdera_ or _Statutes_.
In the reign of Charles II., one of the methods resorted to by that
monarch to reward the officers who had remained faithful to his
cause, was to give them grants of plate and other valuables, with
permission to dispose of them by a lottery. This gave rise to various
schemes, under the titles of royal-oak and twelve-penny lotteries,
&c.; which were sanctioned by government, as we learn by the following
advertisement, which appeared soon after the Restoration:--“This is
to give notice, that any persons who are desirous to farm any of the
counties within the kingdom of England or dominion of Wales, in order
to the setting up of a plate lottery, or any other lottery whatsoever,
may repair to the lottery-office in Mermaid-court, over against the
mews, where they may contract with the trustees commissioned by his
majesty’s letters patent for the management of the said patent, on
behalf of the truly loyal indigent officers.”
In 1694, a loan of a million was raised by the sale of tickets at
£10 each, the prizes in which were funded at the rate of 4 per cent.
for sixteen years certain. In the reign of queen Anne lotteries were
forbidden as hurtful, but soon after they were again permitted under
a variety of conditions, and were commonly for terminable annuities,
to which both blanks and prizes became entitled at different rates;
thus in 1710, the lottery consisted of 150,000 tickets, valued at £10
each; every ticket being entitled to an annuity for thirty-two years,
the blanks at 14_s._ per annum, and the prizes to various annuities,
from £5 to £1000. Tickets appear to have been first divided into shares
during the administration of Sir Robert Walpole.
In 1746, a loan of three millions was raised on 4 per cent. annuities,
and a lottery of 50,000 tickets at £10 each; and in 1747, one million
was raised by the sale of 100,000 tickets, the prizes in which were
founded in perpetual annuities, at the rate of 4 per cent. per annum.
During the same century government constantly availed itself of this
means to raise money for various public works, of which the British
Museum and Westminster-bridge are well-known examples.
Probably the last occasion on which this taste for gambling was thus
made use of occurred in 1780, when every subscriber of £1000 towards
a loan of twelve millions, at 4 per cent., received a bonus of four
lottery tickets, the intrinsic value of each of which was £10.
In 1778 an act was passed obliging every person who kept a
lottery-office to take out an annual license, and to pay £50 for the
same, a measure which reduced the number of lottery-offices from 400 to
51.
In 1823, however, the last act sanctioned by parliament for the sale of
lottery tickets, contained provisions for putting down all state and
private lotteries, and for rendering illegal the sale, in this kingdom,
of all tickets or shares of tickets in any foreign lottery.]
A lottery was drawn at Amsterdam in 1549, the profit of which was
employed in building a church steeple[1040]; and another was drawn
at Delft in 1595. I was informed by Professor Fiorillo that there is
still preserved at Amsterdam, in the hospital for old men, _oude mannen
huys_, a beautiful painting by David Vinckenbooms, eight feet in height
and fourteen in breadth, which represents the drawing of a lottery in
the night-time. The artist is said to have been born in the year 1578.
This game of chance must have been known also at an early period in
Germany; for, in the year 1521, a lottery was established by the
council at Osnaburg, and is mentioned in a work published in 1582; but
the prizes consisted only in articles of merchandise. The citizens of
Hamburg having proposed a lottery, according to the Dutch manner, for
the purpose of building a house of correction, the magistrates gave
their approbation in the month of November 1611, and in 1615 it was
drawn. At Nuremberg the first lottery seems to have been drawn in the
year 1715. At any rate, Von Murr, in his Description of the remarkable
things in that city, mentions an engraving with the following title:
“Representation of the _Lotto publico_, which was drawn in the large
hall of the council-house, at Nuremberg, anno 1715.” It is certain
that we are not here to understand the so-called Italian _lotto_, but
a common lottery, as the former was not introduced into Germany till a
much later period. At Berlin the first lottery was drawn in the month
of July 1740. It consisted only of one class of prizes, as was probably
the case with all lotteries at first. It contained 20,000 tickets,
each of which cost five dollars; so that the whole income amounted to
100,000 dollars. There were 4028 prizes, the largest of which was a
house worth 24,000 dollars.
The ill-famed Italian or Genoese lottery was, as its name shows, an
invention of the Genoese[1041], and arose from the mode in which the
members of the senate were elected; for when that republic existed in
a state of freedom, the names of the eligible candidates were thrown
into a vessel called _seminario_, or, in modern times, into a wheel of
fortune; and during the drawing of them it was customary for people to
lay bets in regard to those who might be successful. That is to say,
one chose the names of two or three _nobili_, for these only could be
elected, and ventured upon them, according to pleasure, a piece of
money; while, on the other hand, the opposite party, or the undertaker
of the bank, who had the means of forming a pretty accurate conjecture
in regard to the names that would be drawn, doubled the stakes several
times. Afterwards the state itself undertook the bank for these bets,
which was attended with so much advantage; and the drawing of the names
was performed with great ceremony. The _venerabile_ was exposed, and
high mass was celebrated, at which all the candidates were obliged to
be present.
A member of the senate, named Benedetto Gentile, is said to have first
introduced this lottery, in the year 1620; and it is added, that the
name of Gentile having never been drawn, the people took it into their
heads that he and his names had been carried away by the devil, in the
same manner as Schwartz, the inventor of gunpowder, as a punishment
for this unfortunate invention. But at length, the wheel being taken
to pieces in order to be mended, the name, which by some accident had
never been drawn, was found concealed in it. Hence it may be easily
seen how this game of chance was formed, by introducing numbers instead
of the names of the nobility.
However, if I am not mistaken, it continued to be peculiar to the
Genoese till nearly the middle of the eighteenth century. But as all
travellers spoke of this _lotto di Genoa_, and many wished to try their
fortune in it, the Genoese, for their own benefit, established in many
large towns commissioners, whose business was to dispose of tickets,
and to pay the prizes to those who had been fortunate.
As an immoderate spirit of gambling was thus excited at Rome, Pope
Benedict XIII., who sat on the papal throne from 1724 to 1730, forbade
the Genoese lottery, under the pain of banishment to those who gambled
in it, and to those who received the money. As this threat however did
not remove the evil, the succeeding pope, Clement XII., who died in
1740, followed the example of our German princes, and caused a lottery
to be established even at Rome. Since that time, permission for the
same purpose has been renewed from year to year.
It was not till a much later period that the Genoese lottery was
introduced into Germany. According to the account of J. A. Kalzabigi,
who had made himself known in Italy by many projects, and was
appointed a Prussian privy-counsellor of commerce and finance, the
first was drawn at Berlin on the 31st of August 1763. In 1769,
one was established in the principality of Anspach and Bayreuth,
where it was continued till the year 1788. In 1774, a person named
Wenceslaus Maurer came to Neufchatel, with permission from the king,
and established a _Lotto_ there much against the will of the prudent
inhabitants; but some one having won a capital prize, for which the
undertakers ought to have paid 30,000 francs, after procrastinating
as long as they could, under various pretences, they at length became
bankrupts, and made their escape from the country.
These pernicious lotteries continued till the end of the eighteenth
century, when they were almost everywhere abolished and forbidden. They
are now permitted only in a very few states, which are not able to give
up the paltry income derived from them. To the honour of the Hanoverian
government, no _Lotto_ was ever introduced into it, though many
foreigners have offered large sums for permission to cheat the people
in this manner. Those who wish to see the prohibitions issued against
the _Lotto_, after making a great part of the people lazy, indigent
and thievish, may find them by the help of the index in Schlötzer’s
Staats-Anzeigen.
Si son exécrable mémoire
Parvient à la posterité,
C’est que le crime, aussi bien que la gloire,
Conduit à l’immortalité.
[The only lottery at present existing in England under the sanction
of the government is the art-union of London. The first institution
of this kind in Great Britain originated at Edinburgh in 1836, from
the models existing in Prussia, formed under the patronage of the king
and his minister Von Humboldt, about the year 1825. The money annually
subscribed is expended in pictures, sculptures, &c. It is divided by
the committee into several portions or prizes, from £10 to £400, and
on a certain day the prizes are distributed among the subscribers in
the ordinary way. The prize-holders are then allowed to select works
of art to the value of their respective prizes from any of the five
annual exhibitions of works of art in the metropolis for the current
year. A portion of the total sum subscribed is set aside and applied
to the purpose of engraving and printing some work of art, a copy of
which is given to each subscriber. Hence, by the combination of a very
large number of persons to subscribe for this one work of art, and the
avoidance of risk, incidental expenses, and publisher’s profits, the
print, though at least equal to what would be charged a guinea (the
amount of subscription) in the ordinary course of trade, is supplied to
the subscribers at so small a cost as to leave by far the greater part
of the subscribed sum as a fund applicable to the purchase of prizes.
Several similar associations have been since formed on a smaller scale
in other parts of Great Britain.]