1st Edition
Politics and Trade in Britain, 1776-1914 Volume I: 1776-1840
This volume explores the period between Smith’s 1776 The Wealth of Nations and ends in the early days of the Anti-Corn Law League campaign on the eve of the 1841 General Election, which prominently featured contrasting commercial policy options between Conservative and Liberal parties. During this period, we witness the growth of free trade sentiment, with opposition to monopolies like the old Chartered Companies, and attempts to create more liberal bilateral commercial treaties. Most importantly, we see the imposition of the protectionist Corn Laws in 1815 at the behest of a Parliament largely based on the landed interest. Between 1815 and 1846, the Corn Laws become the fulcrum of the entire debate on commercial policy, the ‘keystone in the arch’ of the protective system, and slowly, divisions begin to emerge throughout society and between the political parties, culminating in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League and their attempt to influence politics via ‘pressure from without’.
The sources include printed matter such as the diaries of Lord Colchester; various parliamentary papers on commercial policy; printed correspondence of William Pitt, Lord Melbourne, Joseph Sturge; periodical literature from numerous sources such as the Eclectic Review, and The Oriental Herald. Also included is a considerable body of newspaper material from the Manchester Times, Dundee Advertiser, and The Chartist, reflective of the growing importance of the provinces and manufacturing interests in commercial, and local and national politics.
Volume 1: 1776-1840
Acknowledgements
Editorial Principle
Chronology
General Introduction
Volume 1 Introduction
1. Adam Smith and Lord North Report
2. Letter of ‘Remark’ on Adam Smith
3. Extract from a speech by the Earl of Shelburne
4. Extracts from Duke of Rutland to William Pitt, 16 June 1784
5. William Pitt to Duke of Rutland, 4 December 1784
6. Charles James Fox, speech of 24 May 1785
7. The Commercial Treaty. A New Ballad, from France
8. French Treaty
9. Charles James Fox, speech at the King’s Speech on Opening the Session, 23 January 1787
10. General Chamber of Manufacturers of Great Britain
11. Editorial on French Treaty,
12. Lord Sheffield to William Eden, 11 February 1787, William Eden to Lord Sheffield, February 1787, Josiah Wedgwood to Lord Auckland, 16 June 1787
13. Abridgment of the State of Politicks this Week
14. Extract from William Edward Hartpole Lecky History of England in the Eighteenth Century
15. France: National Convention, 31 December 1792
16. Lord Sheffield to Lord Auckland, 5 February 1793
17. Protest of Lords on War with France
18. Lord Glastonbury to William Pitt, 12 March 1799
19. Charles Maurice Talleyrand to Charles James Fox, 1 April 1806 and Charles James Fox to Charles Maurice Talleyrand, 8 April 1806
20. Extract from Diary of Thomas Handasyde Baxter, 1810-11
21. Editorial for Orders in Council; Petition for withdrawing the Orders in Council & Copy of Resolutions inclosed in the letter to the Mayor
22. Declaration of Prince Regent against French Decrees of Berlin and Milan and on Orders in Council, 21 April 1812
23. Orders in Council Editorial, Leeds Mercury, 11 July 1812
24. Extract from W. Cunningham, The Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern Times: laissez faire
25. Criticus, ‘Parliamentary Criticism: Lord Holland’,
26. Resolutions of Committee of Whole House on the State of the Corn Laws (1815)
27. Extracts from The Diary and Correspondence of Charles Abbot, Lord Colchester, Speaker of the House of Commons, 1802-1817
28. Letters of Francis Horner to his father, 30 January 1815, to Lord Murray, 3 March 1815, and to Henry Hallam, 14 October 1816
29. ‘On the Freedom of Trade’
30. ‘Lord John Russell’
31. Extract from Memoir of John Charles, Viscount Althorp, third Earl Spencer
32. George Canning to the Earl of Liverpool, 12 September 1825
33. ‘To Mr. Huskisson’
34. Correspondence between Kirkman Finlay, John Gladstone, and William Huskisson, March 1826,
35. The Right Hon. W. Huskisson; Free Trade
36. Editorial on Mr. Huskisson and Free Trade
37. James Silk Buckingham, ‘The East India Company’s Charter, and the trade to India and China’
38. Extract from the diary of Thomas Handasyde Baxter, 18 September 1830
39. Speeches of Earl of Malmesbury, Lord Seagrave, Earl of Radnor, and Earl of Carnarvon, Parliamentary Reform – Bill for England
40. ‘Reform and Free Trade’, ‘The Corn Laws’, and ‘A Warwickshire Farmer’
41. ‘To Our Readers’,
42. ‘Difficulties of the Commission’, Commercial Relations between France and Great Britain by G. Villiers and J. Bowring; Viscount Melbourne to Thomas Spring Rice, 20 September 1835
43. Henry Cockburn on Manufacturing, 2 April 1835
44. [Thomas Dick], ‘The Corn Laws’
45. Election addresses of Sir John Gladstone and Henry Parnell to the electors of Dundee
46. Charles Pelham Villiers to Joseph Sturge, 15 August 1838 and Henry Brougham to Joseph Sturge, 29 September 1838
47. Lord Brougham to William Weir, Chairman of Glasgow Anti-Corn Law Association, 2 October 1838
48. Lord Melbourne to Lord John Russell, 29 December 1838
49. Richard Cobden to William Tait, 9 January 1839
50. Minutes of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, 2 & 16 January 1839; ‘Abolition of the Corn Laws’
51. Lord Melbourne to Lord John Russell, 18 & 20 January 1839
52. ‘The Corn Laws and the Chartists of Birmingham’; ‘The Farce of Petitioning the House’
53. Richard Cobden to Charles Pelham Villiers, 3 March 1839
54. Richard Cobden to John Norton, 5 April 1839
55. Thomas Campbell to Archibald Campbell, 27 September 1839
56. Richard Cobden to Henry Coppock. 12 September 1840
57. Richard Cobden to William Beadon, 19 November 1840 and 24 December 1840
Biography
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Dr. Gordon Bannerman received his Ph.D. from King’s College London in 2005 and has an extensive publication record of books, articles, and reviews. He was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2015 for his contribution to historical scholarship. Dr. Bannerman has taught British history at the London School of Economics, Dundee University, and King’s College London. He currently teaches The History of Business and Government and Business at the University of Guelph-Humber, Ontario.
