Value of trade 1857-1890

Question 1

What agricultural goods did Britain get from its colonies

Answer 1

• Canada, Australia and New Zealand had vast tracks of land permitting the production of cheap foodstuffs and raw materials, that were available in Europe, but at a lower price e.g. wool.
• Tropical colonies, such as South Africa, produced goods that weren’t available in Britain such as sugar, coffee, cocoa, groundnuts, copra and palm oil.
• There was plantation for sisal in Kenya and Tanganyika, coffee and tea in Ceylon and Kenya, tea in India, sugar in Mauritius and Natal, rubber and palm oil in Malaya and North Borneo, coconuts in the Solomon Islands and sugar in Fiji and Queensland.

Question 2

What was the value of British imports in India (1876)

Answer 2

• Raw cotton = 5,875,000
• Raw Jute = 2,799,000
• Tea = 2,429,000

Question 3

What mineral goods did Britain get

Answer 3

• Tin in Nigeria, gold along the Gold Coast and diamonds in Sierra Leone helped develop those colonies.
• Copper was found in what was to become Northern Rhodesia and coal and gold was found in Southern Rhodesia.
• In 1886, gold deposits were found in South Africa prompting a gold rush to the previously poor Dutch-Boer
  republic in the Transvaal.
  ->At the time the tin mines were closing down in Cornwall so over 30,000 British.
• skilled miners travelled to Transvaal to work in the gold mines which increased British ambitions in the area.
• Diamonds were later discovered in the area leading to the Kimberly Diamond Syndicate in 1890.

Question 4

Give examples where trade and commerce with Empire was VERY important to Britain

Answer 4

• Between 1850-75 20% of all imports came from colonies. The Empire provided raw materials and foodstuffs needed by British industries.
• Between 1850-75 1/3 of all exports went to the colonies. Empire provided markets for British industries.
• India was essential to Britain’s economy.
• Tropical African colonies provided valuable agricultural materials, foodstuffs and minerals.
• Tropical colonies produced goods not available in Britain that had high profit, e.g. cocoa and coffee.
• Mining of precious material such as gold and diamonds brought in wealth.

Question 5

Give examples where trade and commerce with Empire was LESS important to Britain

Answer 5

• British financers invested heavily in other countries considered part of the ‘informal empire’ e.g. Argentina.
• Trade outside the Empire was far greater than trade inside it.
• Some of the new African colonies had very little economic value.
• Several self-governing colonies introduced tariffs to protect their industry against British manufactures e.g. Canada in 1859.