3.1 The changing nature and extent of trade

After the seven years war what percentage of GDP was government debt?

157%

What type of government policy did the British originally have?

A protectionist and mercantilist one

Define Mercantilism

A policy of government intervention in trade which ensures a positive balance of trade which the objective to acquire gold or silver bullion

In what year was the slave trade abolished?

1807

What is the name of the route that slave ships took to reach the Americas?

The Middle Passage

Who generally provided the capital used by slave traders and by doing so indirectly benefited from it?

English bankers

In 1766 how many members of parliament did a magazine claim were either planters or had business interests in plantations

Upwards of 40

Which London mayor owned thousands of acres in Jamaica and what type of plantations did the own there which made him one of the wealthiest men in Britain?

William Beckford and he owned sugar plantations

Which group organised the first abolitionist movement in Britain and in what year did they first petition parliament?

The Quakers and first petitioned parliament in 1783

What first of its kind campaign did the slave abolitionists lead?

A grass-roots campaign

Which member of parliament was convinced to lead a parliamentary campaign for abolition and in what year was it launched?

William Wilberforce in 1789

What happened with a French plantation which caused a problem to the slave abolition movement picking up momentum in Britain?

That in a slave rebellion in Siant-Domingue the French responded with emancipation causing abolition to be a pro-French position

What book became highly influential in the adoption of free trade and who wrote it in what year?

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith in 1776

When were trade restrictions removed in Ireland?

1779

How did the passing of the Corn Laws show that protectionist interests were still present in parliament?

That they were designed to keep grain prices high by excluding foreign grain from British markets

Under the leadership of which politician was mercantilism and protectionism dismantled after 1841?

Under Peel’s Conservative Party

Between the years 1842-46 how many import tariffs were abolished?

Over 1200

When were the Navigation Acts passed?

1651-73

What were the three main points of the Navigation Acts?

Colonial goods produced for export could only be carried on English ships, certain goods like cash crops had to be shipped to an Englsih port even if they were to be exported to another destination, European imports had to land in an English port before beign reshipped

When were the Navigation Acts repealed?

1849

After the Navigation Acts were repealed which two major protectionist laws still remained?

The Corn Laws and sugar duties

When was the aquisition of Singapore?

1819

Under what act did the East India Company lose their monopoly over India and in what year?

Under the Charter Act 1813

Why was trade in China difficult?

Foreign trade was heavily regulated and Europeans could not leave the trading base in Canton where they could only trade with the guild merchants known as ‘Hongs’

In its founding year how much trade in terms of Spanish dollars passed through Singapore?

400,000 Spanish dollars worth of trade

Define entrepôt

A port where ships of all nationalities could dock without incurring taxes or tariffs

When was the acquistion of Hong Kong?

1842

Define ‘gunboat diplomacy’

A means of conducting foreign policy by deliberately displaying naval power as a means of intimidation

When was the Treaty of Nanking and what was its four main points?

In 1842 and China had to pay 6 million silver dollars to compensate for the opium destroyed in the First Opium War, cede the idland of Hong Kong to the British in perpetuity, open several Chinese ports includign Shanghai to foreign traders and lift the restrictions in Canton, and grant British citizens legal protections in China

When was the Suez Canal purchased

1875

How many tons of opium was sold in 1880 in Shanghai?

6,500

When was the acquisition of Zanzibar?

1890

When was the lease of Weihaiwei

1898

Why is the lease fo Weihaiwei import in showing colonial interests?

It demonstrates how far British colonial interests had come fromt heir commerical beginnings

What was the duration of the lease of Weihaiwei defined by?

‘For so long a period as Port Arthur shall remain in the occupation of Russia’