How could a colonel on half pay avoid bankruptcy when peace returned?
Short answerA colonel could avoid carrying wartime costs by not maintaining a personally raised regiment in peacetime and by standing the unit down, paying it off, and sending its soldiers home.
NotesA colonel could avoid half-pay bankruptcy by not carrying a personally raised regiment into peacetime. A privately raised wartime formation could become the colonel's financial burden if he tried to keep it after the need passed. The practical solution was demobilisation: hold a ceremony, settle the men, and disband the regiment. This shows how the regimental system could expand for war without preserving every formation permanently.