I know in modern Britspeak one would say, e.g., "the government have ordered..." as opposed to the USn "the government has ordered...", but I was recently listening to Ewan MacColl, who was a card carrying Britspeaker, singing the Scottish version of the song The Banks o' the Nile. He sang the line: The government has ordered, the King he doth command....

My question: How old is the Brit construing of such words as government or company as plural, or is the USn (and The Banks o' the Nile) version the later, in which case when did it happen?