Infrastructure of trade

Question 1

what was the infrastructure of trade

Answer 1

• Ships and shipping
• Railways
• Canals and Rivers

Question 2

What were clipper ships

Answer 2

• sailed all over the world. - These fast ships were ideally suited to low-volume high-profit goods
  such as tea, opium and spices.
• The times of the ships were recorded in newspapers and competition was fierce.

Question 3

What were steamships

Answer 3

• were used to carry bulky, heavy goods.
• British iron-hulled ocean-going ships were more efficient with the new compound steam engine which enabled them to trade economically with distant possessions.
• From the 1850s, steamships increased their cargo capacity and could travel between Britain and West Africa in
  less than three weeks.
• Steamships were more effective as they didn’t rely on the wind or currents and they also
  extended Britain’s reach up rivers and therefore into previously inaccessible countries e.g. up the Niger.

Question 4

Explain how railways helped the infrastructure of trade

Answer 4

• Railways provided the largest single investment of the period in the self-governing colonies of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as the opened up the Canadian provinces, enabled Australia to export wheat and wool and offered South Africa a change to expand into territories and commercial interests.
• In India, the railways (built for strategic purposes) linked the cotton and jute growing areas of the north with
  the mills of Bombay and Calcutta and enabled rice to reach ports for exports. India railways created a huge market for Britain since most of the engineers and parts were British.
• In West Africa, railways provided the vital link between interior areas of production and the sea
• Railways were themselves trading commodities, investments in railways provided ‘invisible’ trade and the
  spread of railways facilitated commercial enterprise.
  -> Around 70% of British investment as in transport
  infrastructure, particularly railways.

Question 5

Explain how canals and rivers helped with the infrastructure of trade

Answer 5

• provided an important means of transport for trading purposes and were often the focus of explores’ quests.
• Canals were built to avoid hazardous stretches of water, or they provided waterways when there were none.
• Sometimes rivers had to be straightened, directed or depend.
• Canals were developed on a huge scale in India from 1857.
• In Canada, after 1867, canals were deepened around St Lawrence/Great Lakes Seaway system and the Welland
  Canal was built to overcome height differences between lake Eyrie and Ontario.