Trade And Commerce

Question 1

The system of mercantilism did what?

Answer 1

The British colonies had been obliged to send most of their produce to Britain, to buy British manufactured goods, and use British ships for both their imports and exports.

Question 2

How was British economic dominance sustained?

Answer 2

By limited application of force, the ‘imperialism of free trade’.

Question 3

Why did most colonies want to trade with Britain?

Answer 3

Partly out of a sense of loyalty, or perhaps a feeling of duty to do so, but also because it was easier.

Trading patterns had been well established and, at least as far as commerce was concerned, the countries of the Empire used a common language or tied currency and shared a common system of commercial law.

Question 4

What percentage of Britain’s imports came from its colonies by 1875?

Answer 4

Around 20%

Question 5

What else supported the growth in trade?

Answer 5

Technological improvements

• Railways

-Steamships

-Underwater cables

• Telegraph lines
• Innovations in banking and company organisation

Question 6

What did ‘Clippers’ carry?

Answer 6

Clippers sailed all over the world, taking low-volume, high-profit goods

eg) tea, opium and spices

Question 7

Why do Historians use the term ‘railway imperialism’?

Answer 7

The building of railways was key to economic development and ensured British control.

Question 8

How did railways increase exports form the colonies?

Answer 8

They opened up the Canadian prairies

Enabled Australia to export its wheat and wool

Offered South Africa a chance to expand its territories and commercial interests into the interior

In India it linked the cotton and jute-growing areas of the North will the mills of Bombay and Calcutta and enabled rice to reach ports for export

In West Africa railways provided the vital link between the interior areas of production and the sea

Question 9

What is invisible trade?

Answer 9

The provision of services or investment overseas, money made in this way is referred to as ‘invisible earnings’.

international transaction that does not include an exchange of tangible goods

Question 10

What did railways facilitate?

Answer 10

Commercial enterprise

Question 11

How did rivers facilitate trade?

Answer 11

They were important means of transport for trading products.

Rivers sometimes were straightened, diverted and deepened to better thus process.

Question 12

What is an example of canals and rivers being used for trade?

Answer 12

In India, new canals were built on a huge scale after 1857.

Canada, 1867, canals deepened around St Lawrence to overcome height difference between Lake Eyrie and Ontario.

Question 13

What were most colonial economies built on?

Answer 13

Agriculture.

Question 14

What resources did Canada, New Zealand and Australia produce?

Answer 14

Cheap foodstuffs and agricultural raw materials such as wool.

These colonies produced goods that were available in Europe, but at a cheaper price.

Question 15

What did the Tropical colonies produce?

Answer 15

Goods that were not available in Europe such as sugar, coffee, cocoa, groundnuts, copra and palm oil.

Question 16

Why was the price of the tropical produce cheap despite small amount of production?

Answer 16

Native farmers were willing to sell at whatever price they offered - and sometimes these fell very low.

Question 17

The British also used plantations.

Question 18

Why was the Tea trade expanded?

Answer 18

Huge market, most popular drink amongst Britons. Before the close of 19th century.

Question 19

What metal was found in Nigeria?

Answer 19

Tin

Question 20

What was found along the Gold Coast?

Answer 20

Gold…

Question 21

What metal was found in Sierra Leone?

Answer 21

Diamonds

Question 22

Which discovery of ore captured the most British attention?

Answer 22

Gold in South Africa.

1886, gold deposits found in Witwatersrand.

This prompted a gold rush to the previously struggling, rather poor, Dutch-Boer republic of the Transvaal.

Question 23

How many British labourers did the transvaal mines require and bring ?

Answer 23

30,000 travelled there from Britain.

Such an influx of migrants encouraged British ambitions in the area.

Question 24

How were expectations further fuelled in the Transvaal?

Answer 24

The discovery of diamonds.

This led to the formation of the Kimberley Diamond Syndicate in 1890.

Question 25

Why was there limited development of industry in the colonies?

Answer 25

Partly because many had a very small internal market and partly because they could not compete in a world market with British manufacture.

Question 26

What is an example of colonies not being able to compete with the British in manufacturing?

Answer 26

In India, where there was a lot local demand, native mills could not compete in price with imported British textiles.

Question 27

What is the argument regarding the benefit of the British system of trade and commerce on locals?

Answer 27

One one hand, undeveloped areas were propelled to modernise, thanks to British capital and technology but, on the other, their independent economic development was curved by the way that the British controlled and exploited their economies.