Tutoring - empire the changing nature of trade .pdf

alevel history british empire - edexcel

1. The Changing nature
of Trade
-Govt policy
-Wealth of nations
-William pitt
-Trade

2. Until the late 18th Century govt
econ policy was mercantilism +
trade was protected
Mercantilism:
●Believed amount of trade in the
world was fixed at any one
time; one country could only
expand at the expense of
another

Govt policy:

3. Govt Policy
-Since the 1650s, the navigation Acts had protected British trade by
controlling the goods that could be traded and the ships that could be used
-Percentage of the crew that had to be British were set + list of goods that
could only be exported from the colonies and empire to Britain
-The ‘Enumerated List’ controlled trade within the Empire
-Designed to ensure that the Britain benefited from all trade between colonies
-Goods on this list had to go via Britain and could not be traded directly between colonies
Also could decided how it would be taxed -> american didnt like this during the arrival of Indian tea in
Boston in 1773

4. The wealth of Nations
Challenged mercantilism in 1776 by Adam Smith
Mercantilist:
●Gold and silver were wealth and that
countries should boost exports and
resists imports in order to maximise this
metal wealth
smith :
●Nation wealth = stream of goods and
services it creates
●The way to maximise it -> not to restrict
the nation's productive capacity BUT set
it free
●

5. The wealth of Nations
●Productive capacity rests on the division of labor and the accumulation
of capital that makes it possible
●Breaking production down into small tasks -> huge efficiencies
●Producers are left with a surplus - they can exchange with others or
invest in more efficient machinery
●A country’s income depends upon this capital accumulation
○More invested in better productive processes -> more wealth
●Supply and Demand
○Things are scarce - people ready to pay more -> more profit in
supplying them
Believed it should be focused on this without need for central direction -> so
there should be free trade & competition
-Cheaper prices + better supplies + greater happiness

6. William Pitt the Younger
-When he took office - national debt was £250 million
-20x the annual revenue of £12.5 million from taxes

-Annual interest on govt
borrowing -> deficit
which funded by more
borrowing -> increased
interest
Pitt had to reverse this trend
3 ways:
Stimulate trade, increase taxes
and/or cut govt spending
Chose to implement all 3
options as one policy
+Avoid war Prime Minister
(1759-1806)

7. Trade:
1780s: IR established - provided
possibility of increasing volume of
exports
1786: Vergennes (Eden) Treaty:
commercial treaty with France
negotiated successfully in the face
of strong opposition from leading
statesmen in both countries

8. France wanted British goods and
the French market for British
exporter’s potential was huge
Favourable to Britain? -> created
hardship in France
●France reduced oil, vinegar,
wine and spirits
●Britain reduced on textiles,
pottery leather goods etc
Eden Treaty
Each country could carry goods freely
during war
-B free to negotaite cheaper
duties with Spain and portugal
for oil wines

9. Excise duties
Smudging -> exceeded 20% of imports + accounted for half all tea in
Britain creating an obvious loss of revenue.

High duties made smuggling profitable, so Pitt decided to reduce duties
to make the temptation no longer adequate to the risk.

Tea duties, averaging 119%, were reduced to 25%. Duties also were
reduced on wines, spirits and tobacco.

By 1789, quantity of tea passing through Customs had doubled and in
one year (1784-5) the Exchequer got an extra £200,000.

By 1792, government revenue had increased by £3 m as a result of legal
increased consumption.

The 1787 Hovering Act also attacked smuggling by extending the
duties of Customs officials to 12 miles off-shore. Again, revenue rose.

10. Change in nature of
trade continued
The abolition of the Slave Trade

11. Starter:
What was mercantilism?
What was the Wealth of Nations and what was its impact?

12. I.e:
The lottery had sold
453 slaves for a total
of £22,726 in the West
Indies.
How did Britain benefit from the Transatlantic Slave Trade?

13. Impact?
Ports -> Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow and smaller ports flourished during the slave
trade. These cities were full of middlemen: merchants and agents for plantation
owners buying and selling ships, trade goods for Africa, supplies for the
plantations and sugar imports. T
Govt -> through taxes and tariffs, using this money to finance the Royal Navy and
fight European wars.
Created a large pool of skilled sailors -> recruited into the Royal Navy

14. Why would this make it difficult to abolish?
-Led to a powerful vested interest in Britain that supported this
- The Gentleman's Magazine claimed in 1766 that ‘upwards of 40’ members
of parliament were either planters or had business interests in plantations —
they could hardly be expected to vote in favour of abolition.
-William Beckford, twice lord mayor of London, owned:thousands of acres in
Jamaica and was one of the wealthiest men in Britain. He strengthened his
influence by securing parliamentary seats for his two brothers as well.
- Even the Church of England owned the Codrington plantations on Barbados,
with some 400 slaves.

15. Abolition of the slave trade: Quakers
Who were they?
A religious minority who translated their Christian faith into progressive political
positions
What did they do?
Organised the first abolitionist movement in Britain, first petitioning parliament in
1783
1787; major breakthrough - joined forces with other non-conformist groups &
William Wilberforce -> persuaded to lead a parl campaign for abolition

16. Abolition of the Slave Trade: grass roots
campaign
-Organised an effective GRC - increase pressure on parliament
-Gathered evidence of the horrors of slavery and exposed the public to them
via pamphlets, posters, debates and books
-William and Wilberforce were close friends -> launched the parliamentary
campaign in 1789

17. Abolition of the Slave Trade: Overseas trouble
-French monarchy was bankrupt
-French revolution -1789 -> hostility with Britain?
-The Haitian revolution = French responded to emancipate the slaves -> they
were pro aboliton
-BUT:
-Britain conspired with the loyalist French plantation and invaded the island -
hoping to restore sugar and plantations ->
-Parl thus voted against the bills

18. Abolition of the Slave Trade: Change
1802 - situation evolved to the abolitionist favor
British hopes to seize Saint Domingue had receded - huge loss of life = disease
Napolean in power -> tried to restore slavery on the island -> British found
themselves supporting abolition to undermine French
1804 - Wilberforce passed bill to abolish slave trade through the House of
Commons

19. Abolition of the Slave Trade: Change
1806 - Foreign slave Trade Bill; prohibited British subjects from supplying slaves
to French colonies
-> However they traded with French colonies under American flag
- bill had widespread support and passed quickly - they carried htis momentum
into the general election of 1806 and elected many abolitionist MPs
1807 - Slave Trade Act passed by both HOCs and HOLs

20. Abolition of the Slave Trade: Motives?
-Humanitarianism
-Anti-french sentiment
-Economics - > losses to foreign privateers during the wars, with threat of
diseases on tropical voyages and impact of slave rebellions -> financial
uncertainty
-1778 merchants in liverpool lost £700,000

21. Abolition of the slave trade: Impact?
What criteria would you use to measure impact?
What was the impact of this?

23. The changing nature
of trade
Free trade

24. Why was it difficult for the govt to adopt free
trade?
Tariff kept in place -> designed to give British goods a commercial advantage
Influnence in parliament
Growth of Ireland’s wealth
-Resrticions were imposed, yet it continue to grow
-After london, Dublin was the second largest and prosperous city in Empire
-Irelan’s wealth was concenrtrated in a small umber of Anglo-Irish Protestant
landowners

25. Ireland’s call for free trade
-Irish catholic peasants who worked the land remained poor
-Growing middle classes were frusrated by restrictions on Irish Trade
-Influenced by calls for ‘no taxation without representation’ from across the
Atalntic -> demands for free trade escalated
-1778 - volunteer protested in Dublin with a cannon on hwich was hung ‘free
trade or this#
-1779 -> govt consulted Adam Smith on how to respond
-Smith was sympathetic and believed that the restrictions on Ireland were
unjust and oppressive and recommended that Ireland should be allowed to
trade - 1779 removed these restrictions
-- didn’t collapse the prices = good thing

26. Whigs
-Political landscape changed after election in 1830
-Representation of the People Act 1832 -> milestone -> made constituency
boundaries more representative and extended the electorate by around
250,000 = 60%
-Manufacturers and consumers have a larger role in determining trade policy
-1838 - Anti-Corn Law Leauge formed - founded by proponent of free trade ->
developed into a powerful lobby by holding mass meetings where
protectionist policies were decried

27. Sir Robert Peel
-Son of a textile manufacturer
-Believer in free trade
-Founded the conservative party in 1834 in line with these values
-Consisted of a coalition of Old Tories and Peelites
-Despite opposition - managedd to keep factions united & made
significant in-roads on the Whig majoirty in parl in 1835/37 elections
-1841 - becamse PM
-Laws supporting mercantillism and protectionism was dismantled
-Over 1,200 import tariffs were abolished

28. The repeal of the Navigation Acts - 1849
Under mercantilism colonies were seen as dependent trading partners, intended
to support a negative balance of trade
In britain the most important expression of mercantillism were the Navigation
Acts, passed between 1651 and 1673 to protect British interests and govern
trade
-Basis of mercantilist economic relationship between Britain and its colonies

29. The Navigation Acts - 1849
What did these acts mean?
colonial goods produced for export could only be carried on English-built and
owned ships
certain goods (including sugar, cotton, indigo, dyewoods, ginger and tobacco)
had to be shipped to an English port even if they were to be exported to another
European destination ¢
European imports to British colonies also needed to land at an English port and
then be reshipped onwards.

30. Soft-touch approach
In order to ensure a smooth relationship between colonies and Britain, they
implemented a Salutary Negltec approach
●Under this system the acts were not enforced too strictly and the local
management and setting of local taxes rested in the hands of governors and
local assemblies
This changed in 1763 - British decided to create a large standing army in North
America to deter France from further conflict there
-Given that the govt was already heavily indebt due to the costs of 7 years
war - a series of laws were passed to generate enough revenue to pay for
army

31. Soft-touch approach
-The govts aim was to make the North American colonies pay for own
protection
-Royal Navy was used to enforce the Navigation Acts - began to seize ships,
cargos.
-This policy of extracting revenue from North American trade remained and
was a major cause of the American War of Independence in 1775
-

33. Repeal of the Navigation Acts in 1849
-Peel was a committed free trade, put many of his ideas into practice but 2
major protectionist laws remained - Sugar duties and the Corn Laws
-Sugar Duties:
-Ensured preferential rates for sugar procedure in British West Indies, were seen as essential
for plantation owners in these colonies - after abolition of slave ownership in 1833 they were
uncompetitve
-Corn Lawas had acquired a symbolic importance for landowners
-From 1845 - potato crop failed in ireland = food shortages - peel argued that
the solution was to repeal the Corn Laws in order to lower grain prices
-Importation Act 1846 - abolished both - unpopular - forced to resign

34. Importation Act 1846- Effective?
-Led to economic decline in West Indies - plantation owners lost business to
slave grown foreign sugar
-By 1846 in Ireland had no money to buy grain at any price, over one million
people died in Ireland between 1845 and 1852 + 1 million forced to migrate
-PM lord Russell - continued to expand govts free trade policy
What does the free -trade movement tell us about the nature of the British
policy?

37. How far can the repeal of the Navigation Acts
in 1849 be regarded as a key turning point in
the pattern of trade in the years 1763 -1914