British Empire - Trade

Question 1

What economic challenges did the British empire face?

Answer 1

• The Seven Years’ war caused government debt to 157% of GDP in 1763
• The American war of Independence, Napoleonic wars and French revolutionary war caused government debt to 260% in 1821
• Funding European armies and maintaining navies to blockade french ports.
• Maintaining land and sea forces across the globe

Question 2

How did British trade evolve over time?

Answer 2

• Mercantilist and Protectionist which alienated colonies increasing the chance of rebellion in Ireland and America
• Due to this, Changed to free trade policies which increased trade and reduced taxes prioritising those who could produce the cheapest goods which suited Britain due to the industrial revolution allowing them to dominate trade
• Those seeking geopolitical influence began colonising weaker countries and Britain did so so others didn’t in the scramble for Africa

Question 3

What was the slave trade?

Answer 3

• English vessels traded textiles, alcohol and firearms for slaves at West African ports
• They would be transported across the middle passage and would be traded to the west indies and goods farmed by slaves would be transported to England to begin the triangle again

Question 4

What economic challenges did the British face in abolishing the slave trade?

Answer 4

• Extremely profitable, with Thomas Leyland making 12,091 of profit selling slaves at £50 each
• The slave port cities also benefited, ex. Pinney family owned the majority of of Nevis and used the money to operate business in Bristol and by the 1790’s 120-130 slave ships left Liverpool annually
• Banks heavily invested in the trade, outfitting ships, lodging money, profiting from tax to finance British navy and army. The trade provided large pool of skilled sailors in case there was a deficit in the navy.
• Slaves were worked to death often so there was always a demand

Question 5

What were the political challenges did the British face in abolishing the slave trade?

Answer 5

• Gentleman’s magazine, 1766, claimed 40+ parliament members involved in the slave trade
• William Beckford, twice mayor of London, owned 1000’s of acres in Jamaica as one of the wealthiest men in Britain securing 2 seats for his brothers.
• The Church of England owned Codrington plantations in Barbados with 400 slaves
• Governer of the bank of England, Richard Neave chaired society of West Indian merchants, a pressure group for west Indian Planters

Question 6

What were the first instances of the abolitionist movement?

Answer 6

• The Quakers with the first petition to parliament in 1787 joining with William Wilberforce
• A grass roots campaign was organised gathering research and displaying to the public through pamphlets, posters, debates etc.
• Gained the support of the priminister William Pitt in 1789 starting the parliamentary campaign

Question 7

What factors weakened the chances of abolition?

Answer 7

• French bankruptcy lead to a revolution in 1789 becoming a republic in 1792
• The French supported the Haitian revolution meaning abolition was pro-French and due to rivalry the British were less likely to accept abolition
• Britain conspired with French Loyalist plantation owners to invade to restore lucrative slave driven businesses meaning Britain was still pro slavery in 1791.

Question 8

What factors strengthened the chances of abolition?

Answer 8

• 1802, Napoleon attempted to restore slavery to Haiti and the British helped slaves to undermine the French aligning with the abolitionist interests.
• 1804, Wilberforce successfully passed the bill in the house of lords but not the house of commons

Question 9

What were the final stages of the abolition of the British slave trade?

Answer 9

• 1806, foreign slave trade bill outlawed supplying slaves to French colonies to stop British ships flying American flags selling slaves
• 1806 general election, many abolitionist MPs elected and both houses passed the Slave Trade Act in 1907

Question 10

What factors allowed the passing of the Slave Trade Act of 1807?

Answer 10

• Humanitarianism
• Anti–French sentiment
• Changing economy, 40% of Bristol’s income was through the trade in the 1780’s but losses of foreign privateers during wars, threat of disease and slave rebellions created economic challenges.
• Ex. 1 in 10 ships would lose the owner profit in the 18th century
• Ex. 1778, Liverpudlian merchants lost £700,000

Question 11

What impact did the British abolition of slavery have on the rest of the trade?

Answer 11

• The trade would not be abolished til 1834 in the West Indies when the 700,000 owners were reimbursed £20,000,000, 40% of government expenditure that year

Question 12

How had the economy shifted after the slave trade?

Answer 12

• Rise of Spanish empire through trade of silver bullion to international merchants birthed theory of mercantilism.
• Mercantilism, the belief that positive balance of trade was the key to wealth and not possessing treasure as this would lead to inflation
• However, mercantilistic competition with other countries led to protectionism, the practice of shielding a country’s domestic industries from foreign competition by taxing imports.
• This led to Adam Smith publishing ‘ an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations’ argued that the protectionist tariffs on imports and exports prevented trade from operating acting effectively

Question 13

Why was initial conversion to a free trade economy slow?

Answer 13

• Tariffs gave British commercial goods an advantage and parliament was full of wealthy businessman who wanted to protect their profits from their estates.

Question 14

What impact did mercantilism have on Irish trade?

Answer 14

• Irish farming goods were similar to British ones so parliamentary land owners placed restrictions on Ireland so stop competition
• Despite restrictions, Dublin was the 2nd largest and successful city in the British empire in 1750 with imports at £1.5m and exports at £1.9m
• 1790, exports reached £4.9m and imports $3.8m showing a positive balance of trade and steady economic growth

Question 15

What impact did mercantilism have on the Irish public?

Answer 15

• Wealth was concentrated into a small group of Protestant Anglo-Irish land owners
• The peasants who worked the land were still poor with the growing middle class frustrated with trade restrictions. Influenced by ‘no tax without representation’ Irish calls for free trade increased
• British soldiers were stripped from Ireland to fight in America meant that Irish volunteers had to protect Ireland from French invasion but they took a political role as they were not controlled by the government hanging up a sign on a cannon ‘free trade or this’

Question 16

How did the British government respond to Irish demands for free trade?

Answer 16

• 1779, Adam Smith was sympathetic and called the restrictions that stopped the Irish exporting glass, silk anywhere and exporting raw wool only to British ports unjust and oppressive. He recommended the trade restrictions to be lifted
• Trade restrictions were removed in 1779

Question 17

What was the impact of the removal of Irish trade restrictions?

Answer 17

• Did not result in collapse of prices due to high demand caused by the Napoleonic wars
• 1815, French war ends and the corn laws are passed excluding foreign grain from British markets
• Despite successive Tory prime ministers, such as Pitt, Canning, Liverpool and Huskinson, wealthy landowners in parliament slowed progression of reducing tariffs

Question 18

What was the impact of the whigs being elected on trade?

Answer 18

• 1830, The whigs are elected and pass the representation of the people act in 1832 making constituency boundaries more representative and electorate by 250,000, a 60% increase
• After 1832, manufacturers and consumers had a bigger role in trade policy who opposed protectionism and mercantilism. The ant-corn law league was founded and became a powerful lobby group attended by 1000’s of men.

Question 19

What was the impact of Robert Peel’s formation of the conservative party?

Answer 19

• A strong believer of free trade formed the conservative party in 1834 with the same values that was made up of a coalition of old Tories who opposed free trade and Peelites who supported it
• Peel kept the two united and worked towards a Whig majority in 1835 and 1837. The Whig majority was achieved in 1841 with Peel becoming prime minister and mercantlilist laws were dismantled
• 1200 tariffs were abolished between 1842-46

Question 20

What did the navigation acts do?

Answer 20

• Passed between 1651 and 1673 meaning colonial goods could only be carried on English built and owned ships
• Certain goods such as tobacco, sugar and cotton had to be shipped to an English port even if they were destined for somewhere else
  ‘How far can the repeal of the Navigation Acts in 1849 be regarded as a key turning point in the changing patterns of trade in the years 1763-1914?.
• European exports had to be shipped through British ports to be redirected to a British colony

Question 21

Why did the navigation acts not hinder American economic development?

Answer 21

• Britain had a light touch approach to taxing America and deputised the collection of taxes to local deputies and officials who turned a blind eye to tax evasion and smuggling which was rife.

– This was known as salutary neglect

Question 22

How did the enforcement of the navigation acts change over time?

Answer 22

• 1763, the British station troops in North America to deter France from conflict
• British government was indebted and needed money to maintain the army. Basically a protection racket
• They enforced the taxes more strictly and blocked trade routes to the Caribbean that they were previously dependant on.

Question 23

How were the navigation acts repealed?

Answer 23

• Sugar duties ensured preferential rates for the British West Indies because after the abolition of the slave trade in 1833 Cuba and Brazil were more profitable as slave colonies
• The corn laws acquired symbolic status amongst land owners despite intense lobbying
• Peel abolished these in 1846 after the potato crop failed in 1845 in Ireland and Peel saw the solution to lower the grain price and did with the Importation act in 1846.
• This was seen as a betrayal of west-indian plantation owners and land owners in the conservative party and was forced to resign after a party split

Question 24

What were the impacts of the repeal of the navigation acts?

Answer 24

• Abolition of the sugar act meant an economic decline in the British West Indies because they lost business to foreign slave grown sugars
• The repeal of the corn laws did not improve the situation in Ireland because 1846 had no money by 1846 to buy grain and 1 million people died in Ireland between 1845-1852 and one million emigrated
• A major aim of the navigation acts was to increase the number of British ships and abolishing them is essentially showing the British was prioritising free trade over national defence

Question 25

What were the impacts of Robert Peel’s resignation?

Answer 25

• Whig Prime minister Lord Russel continued the expansion of free trade and commanded a majority with the support of the Peelite conservatives to dismantle all remaining tariffs

Question 26

What were trade conditions like in China?

Answer 26

• Foreign trade heavy regulated by Chinese government
• Europeans were not permitted to leave their trading base in Canton and could only trade with guild merchants called ‘Hongs’
• Heavily taxed by the local governor
• Only way to access Canton was through the Straits of Malacca which was colonised by the Dutch who refused ships or heavily taxed them and they faced high risk of piracy

Question 27

How were the problems of trade conditions in China solved?

Answer 27

• Jamaican born Stamford Raffles, a colonial administrator established a trading port in Singapore after gaining permission from his superiors in the East India Company and arranged a treaty with the local rulers.
• Initially, the Dutch and parliament were unaware of the post and the Dutch became angry after finding out that the British had settled on territory they thought was theirs

Question 28

What was the Anglo-Dutch treaty?

Answer 28

• Used to agree territory rights in the area with the Dutch being adamant that the British withdrew from Singapore
• British Singapore was founded in 1819 with it collecting 400,000 Spanish dollars but by 1824, it had increased by 2700% to 11 million Spanish dollars
• This growth led to the refusal of British authorities to relinquish Singapore and instead gave Bencoolen and Sumatra to the Dutch

Question 29

How did Singapore grow so fast?

Answer 29

• It was an entrepot meaning all ships of any nationality could dock without tariff which was deliberate by Raffles to create a staging post for the East India company
• This led to goods from the Malay Archipelago and South Asia arriving in the city
• This also meant ships that wanted to trade with Britain no longer had to make the whole journey and could trader goods for textiles, opium and guns at the port and vice versa allowing British ships to acquire chinese goods such as spices from the Malay Archipelago without visiting china
• This led to the creation of 20 mechant houses by 20 with docks for loading and unloading cargo and storing it in warehouses from Jewish, Chinese, Arab and Europeans supported by a network of chandlers banks and auction houses

Question 30

What impact did Singapore’s growth as an entrope have on the rest of the empire?

Answer 30

• Due to Singapore’s strategic location and valuable goods it rapidly replaced Dutch and English colonies due to the lack of tax, politicians noticed its growth, such as robert peel, inspiring the idea of an empire run on free trade

Question 31

What problems were there with Indian-Chinese trade after Singaporean growth?

Answer 31

• In order to increase the balance of trade, the EIC smuggled opium into China which was made illegal in 1729
• The East India Company’s opium trade increased after dealing directly with producers instead of middlemen from 1797 and Singapore opening for business in 1819.
• China’s opium trade increased from 75 tons in 1819 to 347 tons in 1822 through corrupt local officials and small coastal traders
• The opium market expanded dramatically in 1833 when the east India company monopoly ended
• 1839, Chinese opium imports increased to 2553 tons meaning 4-12 million Chinese people were regular users.
• This led to the reverse of the balance of Chinese trade and bullion flooded out of China

Question 32

What was the Chinese blockade of 1839?

Answer 32

• Chinese troops blocked the British settlement in Canton holding the merchants hostage demanding their goods.
• Chinese coastal smuggling ships were boarded and searched for opium resulting in the burning of 1000 tons of opium
• British ships were dispatched and defended the opium traders by force which was ordered by Lord Palmerston
• Lord Palmerston made common use of gunboat diplomacy using the royal navy to solve disputes with foreign powers and used the first British steam powered warship, the nemesis to smash through the blockade allowing them to dictate terms with the Chinese emperor to take control of Hong Kong in 1841 giving them access to the best deep water harbours in the world

Question 33

How did Hong Kong develop under the British?

Answer 33

• Established as an entrepot
• Establishment of Hong Kong coincided with the Chinese government forced to open new trading posts in addition to Canton
• Hong Kong provided another trading post for all merchants due to a lack of tariffs and the goods could be traded to coastal and river traders for distribution to these ports
• From 15,000 to in 1841 Hong Kong’s population grew to almost 300,000 in 1941
• Due to Hong Kong’s success, the British government pressured China to allow them to expand into Kowloon and more after that

Question 34

What was the treaty of Nanking?

Answer 34

• Signed in 1842
• The first unequal treaty due to Britain’s overwhelming naval power
• Paid 6 million silver dollars in compensation for the opium, 3 million in debts to the Cantonese merchants and 12 million in reparation to cover the costs of the war to be paid within 3 years and an interest of 5% annually
• Cede the island of Hong Kong to the British forever
• open the ports of Amoy, Foochow, Ningbo and Shanghai to foreign traders with the most important being Shanghai because it meant trade with everyone along the Yangtze river not just the Hong

Question 35

How was Shanghai governed after British occupation?

Answer 35

• The Americans established a settlement in 1848 and the French in 1854.
• In 1854, businessmen from these settlements formed the Shanghai Municipal council co-coordinating basic services such as road-maintenance and waste disposal
• Chinese people were not allowed in the party that was governing the city by the 1860’s meaning Shanghai, a colonial city, was not governed by the country or an imperial power but by businessmen who’s main goal was trade

Question 36

What was the impact of Shanghai’s governance model?

Answer 36

• Opium trade boomed to 6500 tons in 1880 sold to Chinese middleman up the Yangtze river that wasn’t accessible before
• The Taiping rebellion evolving into a full-scale civil war from 1850-64 with an estimation of 20-30 million Chinese deaths. British weapons protected Shanghai and they profited from the war through weapon sales to the Chinese emperor
• Britain persuaded the Chinese emperor to outsource the collection of tariffs to them which employed 3,000 people by 1901

Question 37

What are the origins of the Suez canal?

Answer 37

• 1798, Napolean invaded Egypt to attack British commerce between India and the East Indies by building a canal but experts reported it impossible
• 1846, made possible by French experts and Ferdinand de Lesseps was allowed by the Khedive for a 99 year lease return in the project
• Britain, Germany and the USA wouldn’t commit to the project so France bought the majority with the Khedive owning 44%

Question 38

How was the Suez canal constructed?

Answer 38

• 1859-69, excavated by forced labour
• The canal cost 233 million francs more than estimated due to disease and technicalities
• only for steamships as the prevailing wind was not suitable for sail ships

Question 39

How did the Suez canal perform initially?

Answer 39

• 436,000 tons passed through in 1870 which was lower than expected
• Unstable politics of Egypt made the canal look like a bad investment

Question 40

What long time impact did the Suez canal have?

Answer 40

• 1868, Sail ships carried 60% of 7.5 tons entering from Europe, North America and the Mediterranean compared to just 2% of 1.1 million from Asia on steamships due to how expensive coal was
• 1868-1874, tons carried by steamboats increased by 178%.
• 1874, 3/4 of cargo on the canal was British

Question 41

Why was British growing interest in the Suez canal a problem?

Answer 41

• The canal was a lifeline for trade with Deep Asia and sail trade through the horn was diminished
• British had a lack of control of the operation, even though there were no actual restrictions, the French shares worried Britain

Question 42

How was the British’s problem of lack of control over the Suez canal solved?

Answer 42

• 1875, the Khedive had to sell his shares to pay debts
• Disraeli borrowed the money from the Rothschilds and pay £4,000,000 for the shares without issuing parliament
• The dividends on the shares increased by 28.3% by 1911 when tonnage reached 18,324,000 tons
• Explained to parliament as a strategic purchase to secure the trade highway with India and to further Britain’s geopolitics

Question 43

What backlash did Disraeli face after his purchase of the Suez canal shares?

Answer 43

• The purchase of the canal was unconstitutional said Gladstone and would lead to military action in Egypt to protect British interests
• This is what happened in 1882 with Gladstone as the British Prime minister

Question 44

What was Zanzibar like before British occupation?

Answer 44

• An entrepot
• Owned by the sultanate of Oman directing imports into the middle east and India
• Trade relied on slaves and ivory with trade routes running deep into Eastern Africa and back out to the coast
• 1830’s the sultanate moved to Zanzibar and became the capital city showing its importance

Question 45

How did the British abolish slavery in Zanzibar?

Answer 45

• 1815, British influence increased
• Consular officials at key ports, backed by the navy, used diplomacy
• Royal navy were bad at intercepting slave ships but their presence influenced local rulers including Zanzibar who traded 50,000 slaves annually
• Sultan convinced by British to ban exporting of slaves form Zanzibar but they could still be imported from Africa to work on plantations
• 1873, complete ban on slavery through British pressure
• Helped rulers who were favourable to the British and blocked those who were not

Question 46

What impact did the abolition of the slave trade and increase of British influence have in Zanzibar?

Answer 46

• Zanzibar lost importance to the Arabian peninsula as a slave port and and in 1861 the Sultan’s empire was split with his brother taking control of Oman
• Increased in importance as an entrepot due to being between India and Europe allowing collection of African ivory, cloves and rubber
• 1859-79 ships grew by 31 and tonnage roughly by 77,000 due to low tariffs of 5% by the sultan influenced by the British after signing a treaty
• Maintained Islamic state despite being under British influence

Question 47

What were the origins of the East German trading company?

Answer 47

• Trade concessions had been negotiated in East Africa but failed due to lack of capital
• 1883, Karl Peters secured £8750 from small imperialistic businesses while also gaining government support despite the company being projected to fail
• German chancellor Bismarck, initially reluctant, about colonial expansion, put Peters under imperial protection in 1885 which helped attract more funding
• Kaiser Wilhelm invested £25,000 and other investments followed
• 1904, government sponsored railway construction into the interior of East Africa

Question 48

What impact did German expansion into East Africa have on British East-Africa?

Answer 48

• William Mackinnon, owned a steam ship company in Zanzibar, failed to set up a trade company in east Africa 1878 after failing to get government support despite negotiating a 20% profit concession with the local sultan
• After the Germans had set one up, Mackinnon obtained 250,000 and a trade concession for the British East Africa association. Hos biggest investor was himself with 25,000 as well as anti-imperialists and anti-slavery philanthropists

Question 49

How successful was the British East Africa association?

Answer 49

• The association never made money with a net loss of £50,000 in 1892
• Secured foothold for British interests in East Africa in order to protect the upper parts of the Nile to stop countries from starving Egypt by redirecting the Nile
• Government established protectorates and funded a railway from Mombassa to Uganda in 1895 despite the dire financial setting showing control of Africa wasn’t about commercial interests

Question 50

What impacts did the British and German’s scramble for Africa have?

Answer 50

• Despite 200 years of control, Sultan’s rights to mainland Africa ignored
• Germany gave up any right to Zanzibar and the British set up a protectorate for it in exchange for a small island in the North sea in n 1890 treaty which ended the Zanzabari Sultanate independence

Question 51

What is some evidence for British control over Zanzibar after the establishment of the protectorate?

Answer 51

• 1896, the Pro-British sultan died and his cousin seized power which the British did not like and the city was bombarded by the British and 500 Zanzabaris were killed in the shortest 38 minute war.

Question 52

What was the great game and who was playing in it?

Answer 52

• The great game is a political and economic rivalry between the Russian and the British empire for supremacy in Central Asia, such as Afghanistan and Persia, in the 19th century

Question 53

How did Russian interests lead to the militarisation of China and the loss of Port Arthur

Answer 53

• The Russians wanted to expand into East Asia due to lack of warm water ports, through territorial advances into Chinese Turkistan but was abandoned over the threat of war with China in 1881
• Previously the defenceless China bought 100,000’s of rifles and other military things from Germany
• 1880’s China commissioned a German built fortress in Port Arthur to control the yellow sea and international tension which was captured in 1894 after Chinese defeat in Korea by a rapidly industrialised Japan

Question 54

How did the defeat of China and the capture of port Arthur lead to Russian capture of Port Arthur?

Answer 54

• Russia persuaded Frances and Germany to support capture of Japanese occupied Port Arthur in return for support of their East Asian interests
• They had 7 more ships than China weighing 38,000 tons more leading to the surrender and evacuation of Japanese Port Arthur in December 1895.
• China was persuaded to leave Port Arthur to the Russians from 1898 rather than risk reinvasion from the Japanese

Question 55

How did Russian occupation of Port Arthur cause British occupation of Weihaiwei?

Answer 55

• British had stayed neutral to occupation of Port Arthur as they had a strategic port in Hong Kong
• However, Russian acquisition of Port Arthur meant the arrival of the great game and the protection of British Chinese interests and the British demanded another port from China to oversee Russian Port Arthur which was the lease Weihaiwei in 1898

Question 56

Why was the lease of Weihaiwei significant?

Answer 56

• Shows the shift of the British empire from commercial to undermining competitive powers such as Expansionist Russia who had been acquiring old remnants of the Islamic empire such as Afghanistan