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Rise of great britain to world power Politics, War, and Empire: The Rise of Britain to a World Power 1688-1792
Earl A. Reitan
Copyright 1994, Harlan Davidson, Inc.
Page 18
With the support of parliament, the Restoration governments adopted economic policies that are generally known as mercantilism. The most important mercantilist legislation was the Navigation Act of 1661, designed to strengthen English seapower. In trade with other countries the Navigation Act required the use of English ships or the ships of that country. In trade with England's colonies only English or colonial ships could be used. The effect of the Act was to block carriage of goods by third parties, primarily Dutch.
The Staple Act (1663) required that foreign goods be shipped first to England, where duty would be paid on them, before being shipped to the colonies. Certain "enumerated articles" produced by the colonies could be sent only to England, often to be re-exported to other destinations. The original "enumerated articles" were cotton, tobacco, sugar, ginger, indigo, and dyewoods. Later other colonial products were added to the list.
By 1688 England had become a major maritime nation.
An important aspect of England's overseas expansion during the seventeenth century was the development of tits navy. Charles II actively encouraged the development of English seapower, especially to compete with the Dutch, who were the leading maritime power of the time and the main obstacle to the expansion of the English trade. James, when Duke of York, devoted his considerable ability to building up the navy. Warships became larger and sturdier, and their firepower was increased. They were slow and unwieldy, and battle tactics consisted mainly of slugging it out with the enemy ships at point blank range. The navy became England's favorite service, because it was not regarded as a threat to liberty.
The experience of Cromwell's military rule left the English people with an abiding fear of a standing army. … For home defense England relied principally on the militia, led by the aristocracy and gentry.
Page 23 (22)
By 1688 England had developed trade with India on a regular basis. Although the East India Company had been founded near the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, its early voyages were sporadic and not very profitable. During the English Civil Wars, the East India Company was greatly weakened by its association with the crown. Charles II renewed the company's charter and gave it a superb base at Bombay, on the west coast of India. The company then built fortifications and improved the harbor, and by the end of the Restoration period Bombay was becoming what it is today-one of the great cities of Asia.
Despite wars and the hazards of the sea, including attacks on its ships by pirates, the East India Company began making huge profits and the value of its stock more than tripled. As a result, other financial interests in England challenged the company's monopoly of trade with India. After the Revolution of 1688 a second East India Company was formed and bitter competition arose between the two companies. Economic realities and the doctrines of mercantilism trade made such a situation intolerable, and the two companies merged in 1702.
England's scattered colonies and modest overseas trade gave no indication of a great future in the wider world. Somehow the Glorious Revolution changes all that.
Page 26
The economic future of England was also at stake. The aggressive policies of Louis included economic as well as political expansion. French subjugation of the Dutch Republic would give Louis control of Dutch trade, shipping, and colonies, and would make France a powerful competitor of English merchants and ship captains. With additional seapower gained from the Dutch, France would threaten the English colonies in North America and the West Indies.
Since England had a minuscule army, English involvement in the European balance of power was not possible without allies to provide ground forces. Fortunately, continental allies were available. In 1686 the Austrian emperor led I forming the League of Augsburg, to resist French threats to the German states. The Revolution of 1688-89 brought English and the Dutch into the alliance, and the Spanish joined later. Although other alliances would come and go, for the next sixty years the England, Dutch, and Austrians would fight together against France.
Page 29
The French navy retaliated in 1693 when it captured the Smyrna convoy, a flotilla of English merchant ships coming from the Mediterranean. Although the merchants suffered heavy losses, the outcome of the war was not affected. The episode strengthened the determination of the English to obtain a naval base in the Mediterranean.
Since the Anglo-Dutch allies had the advantage at sea, they fought back with a blockade. In 1689 they agreed to prevent their own neutral merchants from trading with France. The Dutch whose economy was heavily dependent on trade, suffered severely from this limitation, but the danger of French expansion enabled William III to keep Dutch merchants and sea captains in line. English and Dutch privateers swept the French merchant marine from the sea, thus contributing to the financial exhaustion which compelled Louis to make peace. The blockage was a harbinger of maritime strategy that would become increasingly important.
In America the English colonies fought their own war, which they called King William's war. In 1690 the New Englanders captured Acadia and attacked Quebec, the first of a long series of unsuccessful attempts to conquer Canada. The French at Quebec allied with the Indians to conduct raids on frontier settlements in New England and New York. The English colonists fought back by joining with the warlike Iroquois to attack French trading posts. The peace settlement at the end of the war left colonial possessions unchanged.
Page 30
The Revolution of 1688-89 brought about a fundamental change in English politics. The Revolution and the war that followed required a high degree of cooperation between the king and parliament.
Some members of the House of Commons, Whigs and Tories alike, used the financial needs of the war as a means to limit the powers of the crown.
England's major asset in waging war was its financial resources. In the reign of William III these were mobilized in a new and enormously effective way. The income of the crown (supplemented by hereditary revenues) was voted at the beginning of each reign for the life of the monarch, but it was inadequate for large-scale war. Consequently, Parliament authorized large loans. Each loan was secured by the customs duties or other sources of revenue earmarked to pay the interest on that loan. A tax on income from land, which could rise as high as 20 percent, was imposed on a year-by-year basis.
Establishment of the Bank of England provided the nucleus of a banking system that could handle large amounts of money. The new financial system enabled England to borrow unprecedented sums to wage war by land and sea and to subsidize its allies. In a prolonged war England's financial resources were an advantage which continued throughout the eighteenth century.
Page 31
When peace was made in 1697 the parliamentary coalition that had supported the war broke down. Harley and other leaders of the House of Commons were determined to limit royal power by strengthening their "power of the purpose." Public finance was put on a peacetime basis. The main sources of income were customs duties on imports and excise duties on domestic products, primarily distilled liquors. Much of this income was already pledge to pay interest on the loans. To keep the crown financially dependent on Parliament, additional income came from the land tax, which was voted annually.
Page 34
Meanwhile, Godolphin was engaged in raising money for war, primarily through huge loans. While banking and mercantile interests profited from wartime loans and contracts, the landed interests of England were burdened with a heavy land tax.
Queen Anne's goal of nonpartisan government was frustrated by intensified rivalry between Whigs and Tories. The Whig leaders supported the land war in the Netherlands and maintained close relations with the bankers and merchants of London. … As Marlborough and Godolphin turned increasingly to the Whigs, Harley left the ministry and strengthened his ties with the Tories.
Page 52
Walpole maintained the Navigation Acts and the other aspects of mercantilism while seeking to remove unnecessary interference with the flow of trade. He was sensitive to special interests, as in the Hat Act (1732), which protected British manufacturers against colonial competition. The Molasses Act (1733), intended to reduce colonial trade with the French West Indies, was for the benefit of planters in the British West Indies.
Walpole's main concern was to support established merchants and the great monopoly companies. A trade treaty with Russia in 1734 secured access of the Russia Company to that valuable and strategically important area of trade.
Page 75
By mid-eighteenth century they had a population of more than two million people, with well-built towns, prosperous farms, skilled industries and crafts, and a thriving trade, much of it in violation of the Navigation Acts.
Page 77
The Chinese government narrowly restricted trade with foreigners, which was limited to the port of Canton. Another problem facing the company was the payment of tea, for the Chinese would take only gold or silver and were uninterested in British goods.
Page 97
The British triumph in North America also came with a sour taste. In Britain it was felt that the colonists had not fully supported the war. British military officers serving in America had developed disdain for the colonial militia. The treasury and the military services were irritated at the niggardly financial support of the war by the colonial assemblies. Indian uprisings along the frontier in 1763 convinced the British authorities that it would be necessary to maintain troops in the colonies after the war: to protect the Indians from colonists and the colonists from the Indians-and perhaps to secure better obedience in general.
In the colonies, the waging of war had made British authority and colonial dependence more evidence, a condition the colonists were determined to reverse. They especially resented the British military presence, and, with French power, destroyed, they no longer saw a need for it.
Page 101
The British empire was primarily an empire of trade. Genville was determined to strengthen the mercantilist controls that held it together. The Sugar Act 1764 reduced the duties on molasses to make smuggling less profitable, but it also imposed new duties on important items of trade such as wine. Additional items were added to the "enumerated articles" that could be shipped only to Britain. Merchants were required to post bonds guaranteeing that their exports went to legal destinations.
Page 103
Faced with heavy expenditures for the costs of war and the national debt, Grenville was determined that the colonists should pay some of the increased cost of administrating and defending the empire of which they were a part. He proposed a Stamp Tax on legal documents and newspapers.
The legislation passed with little attention in Britain, where the Stamp Tax had existed since 1694. In the American colonies Grenville's Stamp Tax aroused powerful opposition. The tax fell heavily upon lawyers and journalists, two of the most articulate and contentious elements in any society. The Americans, whose suspicions of the Grenville ministry had already been aroused, denied the right of Parliament to impose taxation without their consent. They cited the principle of "no taxation without representation."
The Stamp Act affected all the colonies equally, and for that reason the Americans discovered a unity in resistance that they had not known before. They invoked in eloquent words their constitutional rights and liberties. Riots broke out in seaports all along the coast, making it impossible for governors and customs officers to enforce the law. The Stamp act Congress of 1765 imposed an embargo that injured British merchants at a time when trade was in a depression. Merchants in London and outports joined with colonial agents in agitating for its repeal.
Page 107
Although the North American colonists received the most attention, British political leaders also faced serious problems of empire in another direction. The British East India Company had been transformed by the conquest of Bengal. The company had become a quasipolitical institution with power military forces governing a province with a large population and revenue. Leaders like Clive, scornfully called "nabobs," returned from India with large fortunes. In India lesser officials of the company profited from private trade while neglecting the company's business. As a result, the corporate trade of the company declined.
Back in London, the structure of the company made it vulnerable to the ambitions of politicians and to exploitation by irresponsible directors and stockholders. There was a general believe that Bengal was a bonanza. The ministers of the crown were tempted to exploit the company for political advantage and as a new source of revenue. Stockholders expected generous dividends. The directors of the company found it prudent to support the government of the day, and with the rise and fall of ministries they inevitably became involved in political partisanship.
By 1765 the British East India Company was facing bankruptcy, due to cost of its wars and the decline of its trade. Responding to widespread complaints, the Grenville Ministry acted to establish some control over the political influence of the company. Grenville also used political pressure to obtain a subsidy from the company for the treasury.
When Chatham came to power he decided that the affairs of India were too important to be left entirely to a private corporation torn by fractional rivalries. He proposed to bring the company under the authority of the crown. The Chatham ministry used the pressure for reform to obtain a financial contribution to the crown, and also to reform the management of the company. The abuses of power by the company's officials in India continued unchecked.
Page 108
Lord North knew it was essential to do something about the company, which by 1772 was again on the verge of bankruptcy.
In 1773 the North ministry led in passage of the Regulating Act, legislation intended to bring the affairs of the company under public supervision.
To sweeten the pill, the crown gave the East India Company a loan of £1,4000,000 and the privilege of selling tea through its own agents in the American colonies. Previously the company had been required to sell its tea at public auction in London, where it was purchased by British and colonial merchants who retailed it at profit. Under the new system the company would be able to undersell competitors: there would be no intermediaries, and the company would not be required to pay British customs on duties, although the Townsend duty on tea would still be collected. There would be less incentive for smuggling because the price of the company's tea would be lower.
The provisions concerning tea seemed harmless. The company would be able to sell its surplus of tea, which had accumulated as a result of extensive smuggling. Colonial authorities would be strengthened by the additional revenue collected as legitimate imports increased. The colonists would get cheaper tea. The losers would be the colonial tea merchants and smugglers.
Page 109
In the Seven Years' War Britain had been the big winner while France and Spain were the big losers. British trade, seapower, money, and military mobility threatened the Spanish empire and the French role in Europe. While those two states prepared to cut Britain down to size, smaller states also felt threatened. The British found that their great victory had spawned enemies, not friends. Britain was diplomatically isolated and could no longer threaten the French with the prospect of combined continental and maritime wars.
Page 111
Meanwhile, tensions were again rising in the North American colonies. The colonists were determined to maintain the independence of their colonial governments and promote their opportunities for trade and territorial expansion. They had inherited the typical eighteenth-century fear of a strong monarchy. They were familiar with the works of Edmund Burke and others who claimed that the crown had become too powerful and had established a "corrupt influence" over Parliament. Although the incidents that aroused colonial resistance were minor, cumulatively they were inflated into fears of "despotism."
The center of resistance was Boston, where Lord North's India Act of 1773 provided the spark. The authorization given to the East India East Company to sell tea in the colonies was seen as another unwarranted exercise of British power at the expense of colonial merchants. In November 1773, when the first cargoes of East India Company tea arrived in Boston, a violent reaction took place. A group of colonists, disguised as Indians, boarded the ships during the night and cast the tea into the harbor. Thomas Hutchinson, royal governor of Massachusetts, found that his authority had evaporated under the pressure of public opinion. Resistance to imports of tea also took place in other colonies.
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