The adoption of free trade

Question 1

What did Mercantalists argue about the creation of wealth?

Answer 1

That wealth was created when a country achieved a positive balance of trade

Question 2

How would a country achieve a positive balance of trade?

Answer 2

By exporting a higher value of goods than were being imported

Question 3

Negative balance of trade

Answer 3

A trade deficit

Question 4

Countries that had a negative balance of trade would be poorer because…

Answer 4

they would need to spend all their gold and silver to make up the difference

Question 5

Who is Adam Smith?

Answer 5

A Scottish economist and Philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and a key figure during the Scottish Englightenment

Question 6

Adam Smith began to question the principles of mercantalism and published…

Answer 6

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)

Question 7

What did Adam Smith argue in “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” (1776)?

Answer 7

Import and export tariffs prevented trade from operating effectively by constraining merchants from finding the best deals

Question 8

Smith felt that removing barriers to trade would…

Answer 8

Increase overall wealth, proposing that both parties in a trade benefited, rather than the “win or loose” position under mercantile theory

Question 9

Ireland’s wealth was concentrated in a relatively small number of mainly…

Answer 9

Anglo-Irish Protestant landowners (the Irish Catholic peasants who worked the land remained poor)

Question 10

Irish demands for free trade escalated as they were influenced by…

Answer 10

Calls for “no taxation without representation” from across the Atlantic

Question 11

Smith called the restrictions on Irish trade…

Answer 11

“unjust and oppressive” and recommended that Ireland should be allowed to trade freely

Question 12

When did the government remove trade restrictions on Ireland?

Answer 12

1779

Question 13

Tories

Answer 13

A parliamentary grouping of supporting traditional social values - characterised by their support of the monarchy and a traditional way of life

Question 14

Whigs

Answer 14

A parliamentary grouping representing more progressive policies (such as electoral reform, free trade and the abolition of slavery)

Question 15

When was the Representation of the People Act passed?

Answer 15

1832

Question 16

What was the Representation of the People Act passed?

Answer 16

It made constituency boundaries more representative and extended the electorate by around 60 percent (milestone in British politics)

Question 17

The changing political landscape was exemplified by…

Answer 17

Sir Robert Peel

Question 18

Under Sir Robert Peel’s leadership…

Answer 18

laws supporting mercantilism and protectionism were definitively dismantled

Question 19

Repealing of the Navigation Acts (1849)

Answer 19

A series of laws passed by Britain to regulate colonial trade and ensure economic dominance by requiring goods to be transported on British ships and sold in British markets

Question 20

After Peel’s resignation, the Whig prime minister ____ _______, continued to expand the government’s free trade policy

Answer 20

Lord Russell