PITT Flashcards
NATIONAL DEBT
Set up in 1696, national debt was the result of Britain’s continental wars. The bank of England loaned the government money with interest to be paid annually. This meant that taxes were raised to pay the interest. However the debt kept (suddenly) increasing which caused national anxiety in 1783.
PITT (BASICS)
Entered the House of Commons as an MP in 1781, became Prime minister in 1783 at the young age of 24. He came from a political family - father was a prime minister, mother came from a formidable Whig family th Grenvilles).
He was a young clever and politically passionate individual with a deep ambition for power all whilst being reserved and distant character and ill at ease in society. These traits seemed appealing to Goerge the III. Through out his leadership, while the relationship was cold and guarded, there was a mutual respect between them - Pitt remained loyal to the king and the king rewarded him with his support.
WHY DID THE KING CHOOSE PITT AS PRIME MINISTER?
There was a political crisis in 1782 - after the loss of the American colonies, his favourite lord North had resigned and the king was forced to accept Whig ministry led by lord Rockingham. He disliked him however he was a capable politician to lead the majority in commons. Lord Rockingham died unexpectedly. And therefore his place was taken up by Lord Shelburne- he was untrusted by the houses of parliament because he had a very close relationship to the king causing his intentions to be questioned. At that point Pitt was chancellor of Exchequer.
Soon Lord North and Charles James Fox joined forces to bring Shelburne down. This coalition didn’t make much sense - fox was a Whig while North was a tory.Fox used norths popularity to get back into office, and north wanted to regain political credibility after resignation when losing american colonies. The king hated Fox and his former favourite Lord North had betrayed him - the king was outraged and did what he had to to defeat the North and Fox coalition and defeat the anti royalist threat.
The king needed someone to restore national confidence and someone he could trust - the Whigs ministry (Rockingham) wanted to reduce his powers, but the other Whigs (Shelburne) didn’t have enough support to hold a government. The king exercised his power to choose a minister. William Pitt has always impressed him - he had great debating skills and logical arguments and was seen as honest and trustworthy. Plus he was young- the king believed he could be easier to control. King didn’t like him but he seemed more trustworthy than other Whigs.
THE KING CHOSE PITT AS PRIME MINISTER IN 1873 ON THE 19TH OF DECEMBER BUT THE ACTUAL ELECTION PROCESS HAPPENED IN MARCH 1784 WHERE PITT WON AND FOX WAS DEFEATED.
HISTORIOGRAPHY OF PITT
Historian Derek Jarrett suggested that after the 1784 election , Pitt maintained good relations with the king because he told the king what he wanted to hear. Looking at surviving letters, its possible Pitt made the king believe he was in charge of policy and historians like Donald Barnes suggest that the king was “ senior partner in the firm” . However Jarret asserts that as far as all the important financial matters were concerned, Pitt was in charge. No one else in the cabinet understood the complexities and the king wasn’t able to ask for advice from any other ministers. It seems like Pitt was a smart manipulating individual.
ELECTION PROCESS 1784
19th December 1783 Pitt was appointed as prime minister which caused alarm to his and kings opposition. At that point, he had no followers in commons and had a large amount of opposing people in parliament. No member of the commons would serve in his cabinet. Which he then made up of members of the lords, leaving g him isolated. His position was very weak and cartoonist nicknamed the government “mince pie administration” arguing it won’t survive beyond Christmas.
Fox had the majority however the King chose to ignore him and exercise his right to choose prime minister’s, fox argued that was proof of the king’s contempt for parliament and electorate. This made fox lose vital support. When votes went against Pitt in house of commons and some calls made for his resignation , Pitt remained. The reason why he survived was because of the king’s support and because fox lost his followers and because of his own personal determination to hold ground until he could gain the necessary majority.
He saw himself as a mediator between the king and the factions, he considered himself as an independent whig. this was very useful to him because by not belonging to one group he wasn’t upsetting or letting down either of the parties. He could do as he wished without being held down by political party beliefs and ideas.
ELECTION 1784 PT 2
As Fox was losing his power and popularity, and when Pitt and fox became more closer equal rivals, Pitt asked the king for an election. However the parliament did elections every seven years, but the king would hold it after three showing that the king was pushing the boundaries of his constitutional position for his own purposes - to have Pitt as prime minister.
The election happened in 1784 March - the king used all his connections and power to have it done and Pitt used sizable election fund at his disposal (bribe). While in the county seats it was harder to sway the electorate, they still supported Pitt and disenchanted from fox. Pitt returned to the commons with the majority. Many of Pitts support came from Whig families who knew his father, people who supported the king and the king used his patronage to create new peers from the lords so Pitt could have support in the upper house. This all made Pitt increase the significance of the influence of prime minister.
WHAT HAPPENED TO FOX AFTER ELECTION 1784
During it, he lost loads of support, and about 160 of his followers lost their seats in the parliament. Fox emerged as the leader of the old Rockingham whigs who sat in the commons and were seen as the main opposing party to the government.
PITT AFTER ELECTIONS 1784
He had several pressing issues to tackle first - national debt and aftermath of losing the American colonies as well as restore confidence in the government. He was eager to introduce reforms and tackle many issues.
NATIONAL DEBT
High in times of war,, expensive war agagainst American colonists. The debt reached a high of 240 million pounds. The annual interests were massive (8milli And that didn’t reduce the actual debton ) . Pitt wanted to solve this problem by introducing the sinking fund, it was tightly managed and reformed in theory where he would pay one million a year from taxation. A successful peacetime policy , it cut the debt by 10 million and helped restore national confidence but was a failure as a what time p
TRADE
Pitt believed free trade would boost the economy. He attempted to put Adam Smith’s theories of free Trade into practice, Britain had an outdated system of tariffs which restricted the development of free trade and industry.There has always been a historic assumption that the government should regulate trade for the benefit of the nation -MERCANTILISM. Certain goods were seen as a luxury for the working class people e.g tea. As a result of the tariffs, smuggling became a huge ptoblrm, while the government revenue was reduced. Additionally the loss of American conies meant that Britain lost beneficial trading rights.a change was needed.
TRADE REFORMS
High taxes paid on goods such as tea and wine or tabaco were reduced which meant that smuggling decreased as there wasn’t any need for it. Pitt also introduced the Hovering Act - enabled authorities confiscate ships that smuggled goods within 4miles off the shore. Additionally and Exercise Bill allowed tabaco and spirits to enter the country untaxed, be stored in warehouses and then re-exported tax free. Even had a group called Board of Trade to oversee.
NEW TAXES
Pitt introduced new indirect taxes to compensate the reform of the tarrif system. He put taxes horse, maids,coaches,bricks,hats ribbons,candles and even windows. Many ridiculoled this, it was a penalty for air and light and limited development of the glass industry.
COMMERCIAL TREATIES
Attempted to make a trade treaty with Ireland however he was strongly opposed. Britishanifacturers feared competition as Irish wages were low. He did however make a successful trade treaty in 1786 with France- both countries reduced import tax. It was short-lived although successful because of the outbreak of the French Revolution 1789.
OUTCOME OF REFORMS
By 1793 the annual revenue has increased by four million because of the introduction of the new taxes. The value of imports and exports were doubling. Smuggling was massively decreased and became unprofitable. He succeeded in restoring national credit and public confidence. This meant that Britain was stronger to face France in face of war in 1793.
ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS
It was vital for pit to reorganize his government in order to carry out his financial reforms. It was inefficient and corrupt. There were no set procedures for carrying out the business of the government which led to confusions and inefficiency. E.g. roles of various ministers overlapped, MPs took advantage of privileges such as free post and general corruption amongst ministers. They enriched themselves from public funds through accepting profitable sinecure offices and pensions. No proper system for checking government accounts. The loan system was corrupt- ministers allowed friends to raise loans at high rates of interest.
