Trade and Economy 1890-1914

Question 1

Quotes:

Answer 1

Rhodes called the Br Empire ‘philanthropy plus 5 percent’
1902 Hobson aid it served the ‘financial capialists’
1916 Lenin said it served the ‘monopoly capitalists’
1993 Cain and Hopkins developed the idea of ‘gentlemanly capitalists’ in the City.

Question 2

Administration in 1914

Answer 2

In terms of administartion in 1914, fewer than 6000 people were employed to run the whole Empire - with India taking up 3000 of these posts.

Best estimate as to the cost of running this administartion is 20p per head of the Br population.

Question 3

Defence of Empire

Answer 3

It was the army that saw the real cost of the Empire:

• Indian army - 340,000 troops
• Royal Navy - to maintain its position as largest on the world was expensive
• Late Victorian period: UK spent 2x Germany and France and 3x USA, Russia and Austria Hungary on military.

Indians contributed 70% cost of the Indian army but nothing towards navy.

In 1912:

• Indians paid 7p towards cost of their defence
• Colonial subject paid 3p toward defence costs
• Br person paid £1.56 to national defence spending - 54p of this to imperial defence.

Question 4

Areas where the Empire was the main food supplier:

Answer 4

The only areas where EMpire was the main food supplier was cheese, apples, potatoes and fresh mutton.
In contrast in 1894 Br imported 30.7 million hundred weight of wheat from the USA, 17.2 million from Russia and only 3.6 million from Canada.

Question 5

Did expansion of Empire guarentee expansion of trade and riches?

Answer 5

No

In 1897 the whole of tropical Africa only took 1.2% of british exports.

Question 6

By 1914 -extent of trade in India

Answer 6

35% of exports went to the Empire - and of this 20% went to India (representing about £150 million).

Question 7

By 1914 -extent of trade with Canada

Answer 7

By 1914 Canada wa supplying over 10% of br’s beef and 15% of its wheat flour.

Question 8

What do critics say about the Br Empire being lazy?

Answer 8

While Br relied on rubber imports from S E Asia, the Fr and Russians had successfully created theor pwn synthesised rubber industries by 1910.
- some said the reliance on cheap labour from the imperial regions suppressed wages back home.

Question 9

What was the general assumption in 1890?

Answer 9

The EMpire made Britain wealthy and more empire would make the country wealthier still.

Question 10

India represented a particularly large market: how much of Britain’s exports did it take?

Answer 10

It took about 20% of Britain’s exports - worth almost £150 million by 1914

Question 11

How much beef and wheat did Canada supply Britain with?

Answer 11

Upwards of 10% of Britain’s Beef and 15% of its wheat flour by 1914.
Between 1900 and 1914, there was a 6 fold increase (to over 45,000 square miles) in Canadian land set aside for wheat production.

Question 12

What year was the line built from Uganda to the sea at Mombassa?

Answer 12

1900

Question 13

Examples of British breweries that competed for the colonial market?

Answer 13

Hodgson’s of Essex and Phipps of Northampton.

Question 14

How the Imperial Federation League exemplifies that the benefits of trade w the Empire were less significant than imagined?

Answer 14

The Imperial Federation League which was establishd in 1884 to promote colonial ties was disbanded in 1893 (less than a decade after its inception) partially reflecting a waning interest in the EMpire’s colonial importance.

Question 15

Facts to demonstrate British trade was growing with the non imperial world - particularly the USA:

Answer 15

In 1894, Br had imported 64 million hundredweight of wheat.

30.7 million from the USA, 17.2 million from Russia and only 3.6 million from Canada.

Question 16

Only in which foodstuffs was the Empire Britain’s main supplier?

Answer 16

Cheese, apples, potatoes, fresh mutton.

Other foodstuff came from elsewhere, with the Empire providing less than 10%.

Question 17

What was the Empire’s total trade in 1896 and how much of this was with countries of the Empire?

Answer 17

The Empire’s total trade in 1896 was worth £745 million, but trade between the countries of the Empire only £183 million.

Question 18

Despite the expansion of the Empire there had been….

Answer 18

No corresponding expansion of trade

Question 19

Br exports in tropical Africa?

Answer 19

In 1897, the whole of Tropical Africa took only 1.2% of Br exports and over the ensuing years the colonies bought increasing amounts from foreign nations, rather than from Br.

Question 20

What were the arguments of anti-imperialists?

Answer 20

• The Empire cost middle class people more than it benefiited them - they were supporting the cost of imperial defence in their taxes.
• The Empire was blamed for Br’s failure to modernise its industry.
• Empire was holding back developments that would have helped raise livign standards for workers.
• Colonies blunted Br commercial enterprise and that the import of colonial food produce into br undermined domestic food production and served to depopulate countryside.
• Cheaper foreign labour in the colonies was depressing wages at home.

Question 21

What happened whilst Britain was relying on rubber imports from Asia and Africa?

Answer 21

French, Russians and Germans had successfully started their own synthetic rubber production by 1910.

Question 22

Who was John A Hobson?

Answer 22

An economist - wrote Imperialism (1902)
His ideas in Imperialism were formulated when he worked as a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian for SA during the Boer War.
He believed the mine owner had tricked the Br into fighting the Boers in order to preserve their own profits.
Critic of Empire who thought it benefitted rich capitalists only.

Question 23

How much did Br investment increase between 1900 and 1914?

Answer 23

Br investment doubled from £2 billion to £4 billion between 1900 and 1913 - not all w Empire hower.

Question 24

When and what did the Colonial Loans and Colonial Stocks Acts do?

Answer 24

In 1899 and 1900
Facilitated a number of infrsatructure projects including rail links into African interior from the ports of Lagos and Mombassa.
Such loans could be significant for the place in question: Forming 88% of Gold Coast finances in 1901, yet their effcet on the Br tax payer was limited - as estimated 29p/year between 1880 and 1914.

Question 25

By how much did the terms of trade balance in Britain’s favour between 1870 and 1914?

Answer 25

Around 10%
- Helped by Britain setting the standard for the international monetary system forcing other nations to mirrir by adopting teh gold standard.
By 1908 - only China, Persia and a handful of Central American colonies still used a ‘silver standard’.
The gold standard became a symbol of br’s economic strength.

Question 26

For how long was Joseph Chamberlain Conservative Colonial Secretary?

Answer 26

1895-1903

Question 27

When was the London Colonial Conference for leaders from Br and the self-governing white settler colonies?
What was discussed?
Why were C’s ideas met with resistance?

Answer 27

1902
Imperial preference
Argued that Br’s wealth had come from free trade and the wider international community rather than with a specifically imperial economy.

Question 28

When did the “death knell of imperial preference” come?

Answer 28

The 1906 general election.

voters overwhelmingly favoured the Liberal Party’s commitment to free trade.

Question 29

Before the outbreak of war in 1914 what did colonies do?

Answer 29

Dominions imposed import tariffs as a means of asserting their national interests over any loyalities or ties with Br.

• Canada had made its own trading agreements with ge, Fr, It and Japan and a separate commercial union w America was regarded as a distinct possibility.
• In India, Br textiles and good boycotted and burned in streets as the swadeshi movement sought to undermine Raj after 1905.

Question 30

What were the economic benefits for being the economic hub of the world?

Answer 30

1913-14 - 60% of transactions passing through the city were for transactions involving no Br party.

Question 31

Non imperial investments:

Answer 31

60% of Colombia’s railway network wa Br owned by the early 20th century.

• In Peru, the Peruvian Corporation (Br owned) administered not only the railways but also the guano production and certain utilities as per the ‘Grace Contract’ of 1890.
• Br owned Sao Paulo railway in Brazil - the most profitable railway in SA as it was the trunk route into Brazil’s coffee growing heartland.
• By 1913, Br had invested £360 million in Argentina - as much as they has invested in India.

Question 32

How many people emigrated from Br between 1815 and 1914?

And when were such trends increased?

Answer 32

16 million people - of whom at least 1/4 went to USA
- rest to the colonies
During recessions - 1901-1910 1.8 million Britons left home.

Question 33

What did the 1891 Reformatory and Industrial Schools Act do?

Answer 33

It gave their governors the power to send ‘delinquent’ children to the colonies.

Question 34

What did Dr Barnardo’s do?

Answer 34

Paid for the passage of 100,000 orphans to Canada alone betwen 187- and 1930.

Question 35

What did the british women’s Emigration League do?

Answer 35

It was designed to send unmarried women abroad.

Question 36

When the 2nd Boer War was fought how many colonial troops participated?

Answer 36

30,000 troops.
10,000 Australians
8,300 Canadians
6,500 Kiwis

Question 37

How many imperial soldiers in WW1?

Answer 37

Total imperial soldiers, sailors and airmen - 8.5 million - 1.4m from India, 630k from Canada, 136k from SA, 129k from NZ
- NZ figure represents half the eligible men!!
Nyasaland contributed 2/3 of its adult male population.

Question 38

In the African colonies how many soldiers and porters for WW1?

Answer 38

57k soldiers and 930k porters

Question 39

By 1900 what was the largest single Egyptian employer?

Answer 39

Thomas Cook and Sons - tourism