Trade and Commerce (9) Flashcards

1
Q

What percentage of Britain’s trade came from its colonies?

A
  • India - 20% of Britians exports, worth £150 million in 1914
  • Canada - provided 10% of Britain’s beef and 15% of wheat by 1914 (Between 1900 and 1914, wheat land production increased six-fold)
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2
Q

Importance of trade in the Empire?

A

Empires economic importance decreased

  • Imperial Federation League disbanded (designed to promote closer ties to colonies) in 1893
  • In 1913 the Empire only made up 25% of B. imports and 37% of B. exports, the remainder were to other countries
  • Britain mainly imported its wheat from the USA - 30.7 million hundredweight compared to only 3.6m from Canada
  • Total trade in 1896 was worth £745 million but the Empire was worth £183 million
  • In 1897, all of tropical Africa only took 1.2% of British exports
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3
Q

How was British development affected by the Empire?

A
  • Anti-Imperialists claimed the Empire was causing it to lag behind
  • Britain lagged behind in chemical and electrical engineering
  • Britain relied on rubber imports from the Congo whilst the French and Russians started their own synthetic rubber production in 1912
  • The Empire was blamed for keeping the working conditions for workers behind
  • One of these anti-imperialists was Hobson who wrote Imperialism in 1902 and that the Empire only benefited the rich capitalists
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4
Q

British investment in overseas/Empire?

A
  • British overseas investment went from £2 billion to £4 billion between 1900 and 1913
  • Most of it went to the USA and India
  • Investments within the Empire were seen as dangerous as they could be used to build up rival manufacturers such as jute and cotton mills in India
  • Colonial Loans and Colonial Stocks Acts of 1899 and 1900 facilitated infrastructure projects, including rail links e.g from African interior to ports of Lagos and Mombasa
  • Forced other nations to adopt the gold standard
  • By 1908 very few countries still used the silver standard
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5
Q

Who was an avid Pro-Imperialist?

A

Joseph Chamberlain

  • Conservative Colonial Secretary (1895-1903
  • Convened the 1902 London Colonial Conference
  • Discussed creating closer economic ties through an imperial customs union (protective tariffs against imports from non-imperial nations)
  • He developed an ‘imperial preference’ as he believed that colonies could be relied upon more and would be strategically valuable in times of emergency
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6
Q

What was the reaction to Chamberlains ideas?

A
  • He was met with heavy resistance from the manufacturers who preferred free trade and mercantilism which gave them access to more markets
  • ‘Imperial Preference’ was openly dismissed in the 1906 general election when the public overwhelmingly supported the Liberals and their free trade
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7
Q

Dominions/opposition to British trade

A

Before the outbreak of war in 1914:

  • Australia, New Zealand and South Africa imposed import tariffs to support their nationalist interests over their loyalty to Britain
  • Canada had made economic ties with Germany, France, Italy and Japan
  • British goods were boycotted in India under swadeshi (self-sufficiency) which started in 1905
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8
Q

Economic decline from 1890

A

1880s overtaken in Steel production by USA

Late 1890s - trade deficit

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