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Trade and Commerce of the British Empire 1857 -1890 (Trade and Commerce,…
Trade and Commerce of the British Empire 1857 -1890
Trade and Commerce
In the 1st half of the 19th century the protectionist system was dismantled in favour of the new theory of free trade
PROTECTIONIST = using tariffs particularly duties on imported goods to regulate trade
The system of MERCANTILISM = colonies had bee obliged to send most their produce to Britain, to buy British manufactured goods and use British ships for both imports and exports
a system of regulated trade
Free trade
Economic dominance was sustained by a limited application of force - sometimes referred to as the 'imperialism of free trade'
Free trade saw imperial trade and investment grow enormously = 'industrial empire' where colonies supplied both foodstuffs and raw material
Britain was active in supporting free trade agreements around the world and was ready to resort to threats to achieve them - Eg. Opium Wars
Supporting the growth of trade were technological improvements in railways, steamships, underwater cables and telegraph lines
Britain the worlds foremost trading nation
Factories produced heavy iron goods and textiles for the global market
Worlds larges consumer market for food and raw material
The Infrastructure of Trade
Ships and shipping
efficient cargo ships built to carry goods while ports and harbours were extended and developed to facilitate shipping and enable loading and unloading
Sailing ship highest state of efficiency = 1860s = Clippers - fast and suited to low-volume high-profit goods such as tea, opium and spices - had a short life-expectancy as they often had to be dismantled after approx 20 years
Steamships
Bulky / heavy goods = steamships
Iron-hulled ships made more efficient by the development of the compound engine (1850s) - consumed less coal
From the 1850s - steamship companies reduced travel time between Great Britain and West Africa to less than 3 weeks + the increased cargo capacity
The opening of the Suez Canal (1869) + the development of the triple expansion steam engine (1870s) further stimulated the construction of steam carries
They were also used inland - by the 1870s several British companies were sending steam-trading vessels up the Niger
Railways
Railway imperialism - key to economic development + ensured British control
British provided the investment, the engineers and the material = colonies became dependent on Britain that could be used to pressurise the colonies governments - Eg. Canada mid 1860s
largest single investment of the period in the self-governing colonies - Canada + Australia + New Zealand + South Africa
India = railways built with strategic purpose + linked cotton and jute-growing areas in the north with the mills of Bombay and Calcutta + enabled rice to reach ports for exports quicker
West Africa = provided vital link between the interior areas of production with the sea
Short Railways = trading commodity
Railways provided 'invisible trade' + the spread of Railways within the Empire facilitated commercial enterprise
INVISIBLE TRADE = the provision of services or investment overseas - money made this way is reffed to as 'invisible earnings'
Canals and Rivers
Internal river systems = important means of transport for trading products
Focus of explorers' quests
facilitated trade - rivers sometimes had to be straightened, diverted and deepend
India = new canals were developed on a huge scale after 1857
Canada = after 1867 canals were deepened around St Lawerence (Great Lakes)
The Products of Trade and Commerce
Agriculture
Most colonies were agricultural
In Canada, Australia and New Zealand the vast expanses of land permitted the production of cheap foodstuffs and agricultural raw materials (Eg. wool)
produced goods at cheaper prices than provide by the European agricultural industry
Tropical colonies - South Africa = produced goods not available to Britain like sugar coco and palm oil
Although production was often small scale, Often an addition to local subsistence farming, native farmers were generally willing to sell for whatever price was offered - often lower than should be
Products might be grown on plantations run by the British - Eg. Indian 'coolies' were transported to work in the West Indies colonies for a fixed period (often 5 years)
Workers were often paid low wages for hard labour and lived in unpleasant conditions
Mining
One motive behind European expansion had been the desire to discover precious metals - became an important trading commodity
Tin in the Niger / gold along the Gold Coast / diamonds in Sierra Leone
1886 = gold deposits were found in Witwatersrand - prompted a gold rush in the previously struggling Dutch Boer republic of the Transvaal
at the same time mines in Cornwall where closing - the Transvaal gold mines required skilled labours - over 300,00 traveled there from Britain
influx of migrants encouraged British interests and ambitions in the area
Expectations increased with the discovery of diamonds = Kimberley Diamond syndicate in 1890
1851 = Gold was discovered in New South Wales Australia and by 1866 Victoria was producing £124 million with in gold
However Australian mines began to run dry
there was a later wave of discoveries in the 1880s around Kalgoorlie in Western Australia
Industry
Limited development of industries in the colonies because many had very small internal markets and they could not compete in a world market with British manufactured goods
India = large local demand that native mills could not compete in price against British textiles
Was the system of trade and commerce good or bad for the colonies ?:
YES = underdeveloped areas were propelled to modernise as a result of British capital and technology
NO = independent economic development was curbed by the way that the British controlled and exploited the colonies economies
The Role of Chartered Companies
The fall of charted companies
19th Century = Britain had become the dominate trading power - free trade was considered the best means of assuring Britain's global economic leadership
Free trade together with the Indian Mutiny (1857) brought an end to chartered companies and to the East India Company in particular
the government allowed trading to proceed at its own pace in the 1850s and 1860s - seeing completion as a healthy sign of successful capitalism
The revival of the charted company
Attitudes changed in the 1870s when Britain's economic supremacy was threatened from both European and American industrialisation on the on set of the Great Depression
the idea of charted companies was revived as a way of expanding British trade and control
1881 = the North Borneo Trading Company received a charter for the purpose of administering the territory
the Imperial Federation League - founded in Britain 1884 - promoted colonial unity and rapidly established branches throughout the country attracting the support of the business community