(9) Trade and Commerce

Question 1

What percentage of Britians trade came from its colonies?

Answer 1

• India - 20% of Britians exports, worth £150 million in 1914
• Canada - provided 10% of Britain’s beef and 15% of wheat by 1914 (Between 1900 and 1914, wheat land production increased six-fold)

Question 2

Importance of trade in the Empire?

Answer 2

Empires economic importance decreased

• Imperial Federation League disbanded (designed to promote closer ties to colonies) in 1893
• In 1913 the Empire only made up 24.9% of its imports and 37.4 of its exports, the remainder were to other countries
• Britain mainly imported its wheat from the USA (30.7 million hundredweight) and Russia
• Total trade in 1896 was worth £745 million but the Empire was worth £183 million
• In 1897, all of tropical Africa only took 1.2% of British exports

Question 3

How was British development affected by the Empire?

Answer 3

• Anti-Imperialists claimed the Empire was causing it to lag behind
• Britain lagged behind in chemical and electrical engineering
• Britain relied on rubber imports from the Congo whilst the French and Russians started their own synthetic rubber production in 1912
• The Empire was blamed for keeping the working conditions for workers behind
• One of these anti-imperialists was Hobson who wrote Imperialism in 1902 and that the Empire only benefited the rich capitalists

Question 4

How much British investment went to the Empire?

Answer 4

• British overseas investment went from £2 billion to £4 billion between 1900 and 1913
• Most of it went to the USA and India
• Investments within the Empire were seen as dangerous as they could be used to build up rival manufacturers such as jute and cotton mills in India
• Colonial Loans and Colonial Stocks Acts of 1899 and 1900 facilitated infrastructure projects, including rail links in Lagos and Mombasa
• Forced other nations to adopt the gold standard
• By 1908 very few countries still used the silver standard

Question 5

Who was an avid Pro-Imperialist?

Answer 5

Joseph Chamberlain

• Conservative Colonial Secretary (1895-1903
• Convened the 1902 London Colonial Conference
• Discussed creating closer economic ties through an imperial customs union (protective tariffs against imports from non-imperial nations)
• He developed an ‘imperial preference’ as he believed that colonies could be relied upon more

Question 6

What was the reaction to Chamberlains ideas?

Answer 6

• He was met with heavy resistance from the manufacturers who preferred free trade and mercantilism
• ‘Imperial Prefernce’ was openly dismissed in the 1906 general election when the public overwhelmingly supported the Liberals and their free trade

Question 7

Colonial opposition to British trade?

Answer 7

Before the outbreak of war in 1914:

• Australia, New Zealand and South Africa imposed import tariffs to support their nationalist interests over their loyalty to Britain
• Canada had made economic ties with Germany, France, Italy and Japan
• British goods were boycotted in India under swadeshi (self-sufficiency) which started in 1905

Question 8

Economic decline from 1890

Answer 8

1880s overtaken in Steel production by USA

Late 1890s - trade deficit