BOME

Political and Economic History

Political History

During the time of political struggle and conflict in Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries, the two main political organizations that sparked a whole new era of reformation, conservatism, parliamentary determination and rivalry were the Whigs and the Tories. Although the adversary political organizations were successful in many ways, they were also unsuccessful in others. While the Tories opposed parliamentary reform, the Whigs had already established the supremacy of Parliamentary over the King. The Whigs were more successful than the Tories due to the management and organization, as well as creation of their policies and adherence to their reform bills, and, not to be left out, their proposal to resolve the political anachronisms of England throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The Tories were indeed organized as seen through their preservation of traditional political structure and later on Conservative Party elements and reforms, but they could not handle all at once or over time the unification of their political structure. Their impulsive decision making and their failure to reach out to the needs of the people also contributed to the downfalls of their party. The introduction of the Whigs and Whig Party throughout the 17th and 18th centuries introduced sentiments of governmental control, popularity within particular boroughs, and ascension of their party platform. The name came into use in the 1680s in England when there was the threat of establishment of a line of Catholic Kings, starting with James II. The Protestant element, that stated that Parliament could prevent such a succession, came to be called Whigs (named after a radical Presbyterian group in Scotland, called Whigamores). The party was largely responsible for the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which established the supremacy of Parliament over the King. Backed by businessmen, industrialists, untitled landowning gentry and religious nonconformists, the Whig Party achieved control of the government in 1714 on the accession of King George I. In 1760, they lost power and became identified with those American colonists who supported American Independence. For nearly fifty years the Whigs remained in power until the Tory Party arose during this time, and introduced conservative sentiments into office. Leaving the idea of the Whig prevention of a line of Catholic Kings, the party adhering to the doctrine of the rights of King James II (and naturally containing Catholic as well as royalist elements), were called Tories. They were named after bands of Irish Catholics who had been driven to become outlaws due to the crusade of the English against the church they clung to. The term was also applied to the monarchists in the House of Commons. By the 18th century the Tories were politicians who favored royal authority, the established church and who sought to preserve the traditional political structure and opposed parliamentary reform. Over time, the Party became more aggressive, and opened up a new era with a serious of reforms.

Economic History

London has been for a long time a commercial city. The sight chosen by the Romans as their harbor and military camp leant itself well to trade, and, as a town in the medieval period, London was a center of English manufacture and commerce. As time progressed, London's power and import grew to such an extent that a description of its economy would be inseparable from one of England's as a whole. As Europe entered the seventeenth century, the time- honored system of guilds, masters, and apprentices began to give way, on the account of increased population and the emergence of trade as a main focus of the economy, to a system of masters and workmen. In Stuart England, the term, "journeyman", still had meaning, but, financially, it was hardly its own class, with some members as owners of large companies and others as their laborers. With a large work force of former peasants made obsolete by new agricultural technology, England had an almost insupportable group of vagrants, and London had enough poor to keep down wages. This allowed industrialists to invest in equipment and joint- venture stock companies, the most renowned of which, the East India Company, formed in 1600. Pure capitalism, however, did not yet exist in England until near the end of the seventeenth century, when the crown ceased to illegally auction monopolies in certain trades. Customs on foreign products remained high, encouraging British manufacture. Export duties on wheat and barley,created to decrease fears of shortage and to help landowners, were not removed until the nineteenth century. Unlike northern continental nations, England declassified quite quickly and quite easily. In the 1600's, merchants owned land, and it was certainly respectable for a noble to go into business. Such economic freedom allowed financial and political support to ventures which in another country might have gone neglected. The presence of aristocracy in London created a demand for luxury items and servants, though trades there were already many and numerous. Ship builders, coopers, brewers, distillers, shoemakers, carpenters, textilers, brick makers, weavers, potters, and smiths all worked in London, though, with the passage of time, London lost its industrial significance in comparison to its mercantile. With England's development as a naval power, and expansion of colonies, overseas trade predictably increased, and London became the center of these transactions. In 1694, marking London's transition to a financial center, the Bank of England opened. London entered the nineteenth century an industrial city as well as a commercial city, the political and economic capital of the most powerful stable European nation, one which, as mistress of the seas, had surpassed Holland in trade, and was now about to enjoy uncontested global influence.

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