Trade And Commerce 1858-90 (1) Flashcards
What does ‘cornucopia’ mean?
Literally means a ‘horn of plenty’; in other words, an abundant supply of good things
What was one of the defining features of empire in the years 1857-1890?
-Expanding trade and commerce
-In the 18th century, the trade and commerce of the Empire had been strictly regulated in a system of ‘mercantilism’, whereby 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
-In the first half of the 19th century, this highly regulated protectionist system had been dismantled, under the influence of new theories of free trade
What did Adam smith argue in his influential book, the wealth of nations?
That wealth was indefinitely expandable and freedom from commercial restrictions was the only way to maximise prosperity
What where Britain able to do with new theories of free trade?
-Britain was able to indulge this theory thanks to it’s position as the world’s foremost trading nation, and from the middle of the nineteenth century, British trade was left free from government trading restrictions
-The government was however active in supporting free trade agreements around the world (which tended to benefit Britain’s trade dominance) and was ready to resort to threats and sometimes outright coercion, to achieve them
-Sometimes other nation’s were willing to grant them; where they were reluctant- as in the case of China in the opium wars-the British navy was used to enforce British terms. Economic dominance was thus sustained by a limited application of force; an approach sometimes referred to as the ‘imperialism of free trade’
What is mercantilism?
A system of regulations governing trade
What is a protectionist?
Using tariffs-particularly duties on imported goods to regulate trade
Did Britain only trade with it’s colonies?
-Not all British trade was with it’s colonies, but there was always a concern that non-colonial trade could be restricted-as happened during the American civil war-whereas colonial markets would remain open.
-Furthermore, to the extent that they had any choice in the matter, colonies wanted to continue trade with Britain, partly out of a sense of loyalty, or perhaps of duty, but also because it was easier.
-Trading patterns were well established and, as far as commerce was concerned, the countries of the Empire shared a common language, a common or tied currency and a common system of commercial law imposed by Britain.
-Borrowing in the London capital markets was also cheaper because lenders had faith in the reliability of British possessions
How was Britain the world’s foremost trading nation?
-By 1857, Britain was the most industrially advanced country in the world. It’s factories were producing heavy iron goods and textiles for a global market-everything from railway stock to clothing and buckles
-Britain’s urbanisation, in turn, had increased it’s reliance on imports from overseas.
-Britain was the world’s largest consumer market for food and raw materials. Tropical goods came to Britain from the plantations of the British West Indies, the Malayan straits settlements and west Africa; minerals and wood were imported from Australia, raw cotton from India and timber and wheat from Canada
-Industrial Britain thus lent on it’s colonies to feed and provide for it’s workforce
What did the coming of free trade see for the Empire?
-Imperial trade and investment grow enormously, creating an ‘industrial empire’ in which the colonies supplied both the foodstuffs and the raw materials which British industry converted into finished goods for export and which, very often, the colonies were compelled to buy back.
-In the third quarter of the nineteenth century, around 20% of Britain’s imports came from it’s colonies, while the Empire provided a market for around a third of British exports
-The city of London became the world’s financial capital as British investment overseas increased and sterling became the main currency of international trade.
-Also supporting this growth in trade were technological improvements in railways, steamships, underwater cables and telegraph lines as well as innovations in banking and company organisations
What were the different infrastructures of trade?
-Ships and shipping
-Railways
-Canals and rivers
How were ships and shipping part of the infrastructure of trade?
-Sailing ships reached their highest state of efficiency in the 1860’s, with clippers sailing all over the world, and in particular on the route to China and the East.
-These fast ships were ideally set to low volume, high profit goods, such as tea, opium and spices and they were also used to carry mail and people.
-Competition among the clippers was fierce, and their times were recorded in newspapers. However, the ships had a short life expectancy and usually had to be broken up after about 20 years of use
-For bulky and heavy goods needing to be carried across oceans and io rivers, steamships were used. British iron-hulled ocean going ships were made more efficient by the development of the compound steam engine in the 1850s, and this enabled steam ships to trade economically with distant possessions
-From the 1850s, steamship companies reduced travel time between Britain and West Africa to less than 3 weeks and increased their cargo capacity considerably
-The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the development of the triple expansions steam engine in the 1870s further stimulated the construction of steam carriers.
-Steamships were also used in inland regions. By the 1870s, several British companies were sending steam trading vessels up the Niger, for example
How where railways part of the infrastructure of trade in the British empire?
-Historians sometimes speak of British ‘railway imperialism’, since the building of railways, which was key to economic development, ensured British control.
-The British provided the investment, the engineers and the rolling stock and the colonies resulting dependence on Britain could be used to pressurise governments. For example, Canada was forced to accept British policies on defence in the mid 1860’s, as the price of London capital guarantees
-Railways provided the largest single investment of the period in the self-governing settler colonies of Canada, Australia and New Zealand and and South Africa; they opened up the Canadian prairies, enabled Australia to export it’s wheat and wool and offered South Africa a chance to expand it’s territories and commercial interests into the interior.
-Of course, railways in these colonies also encroached upon indigenous lands, disrupting long-standing ecologies and communities, and often led to the displacement and forced removal of indigenous peoples.
-In India, whilst railways may have been built with a strategic purpose in mind, they also linked the cotton and jute-growing areas of the north with the mills of Bombay and Calcutta and enabled rice to reach ports for export
-In less westernised areas such as west Africa, railways provided the vital link between the interior areas of production and the sea. In short, railways were themselves a trading commodity, investment in railways provided invisible trade for Britain and spread of railways within the empire facilitated commercial enterprise
What was ‘invisible trade’
The provision of services or investment overseas;money made in this way is referred to as ‘invisible earnings’
How were canals and rivers part of the infrastructure of trade in the British empire?
-Internal river systems were an important means of transport for trading products and were often the focus of explorers’ quests to discover what lay behind the more easily accessible coastal areas of continents such as Africa.
-To facilitate trade, rivers sometimes had to be straightened, diverted and deepened, with profound ecological effects.
-Elsewhere canals might be built to avoid hazardous stretches of water or provide waterways where there were none.
-In India, for example, new canals were developed on a huge scale after 1857.
-In Canada, after 1867, canals were deepened around the St Lawrence/Great lakes seaway system and the Welland Canal was built to overcome heigh differences between Lakes Eyrie and Ontario
What were the products of trade and commerce?
-Agriculture
-Mining
-Industry
