Dickens And National Debt

In Chapter 7 of Great Expectations, Pip makes a comparison of the money- box placed on the kitchen mantle shelf with the royal exchequer. 

When Pip was old enough he was apprenticed to Joe, at the initiative of Mrs Joe, because she wanted to see that the boy was not pampered (Pompeyed was the term used by Mrs Joe)  But Pip was an odd boy in the forge.  So, if any neighbour wanted an extra boy to frighten birds, or pick up stones, or do any such job Pip was favoured. As Mrs Joe thinks herself superior to her neighbours she finds a way to receive the wages of her brother.  A moneybox is kept on kitchen mantle shelf and makes it public that all earnings of her brother are to be dropped in it. Later, Pip reflects that he doesn't know what happens to his earnings or where it goes. He thinks that it goes eventually to the liquidation of National Debt. 

Here Dickens makes a comparison of household debt with national debt, and makes it clear that the real owners of the wealth has no say in the matter. This fits very well with the Dickensian way of taking an apparently insignificant household incident and making it reveal something about a much larger institution.