XII. Forces of Nature

The impact of imperial trade

Although there is no space in this article to cite detailed data, a more positive assessment of the impact of trade and colonies on British development can, however, be made.

Revenue from slavery and the slave trade filtered back into the British economy in indirect ways, with bankers, insurance specialists and country gentlemen all participating as active investors. Some historians think that the profits of slavery and the slave trade, as a proportion of national income, were impressive.

British manufacturing production, it has been argued, received the additional stimulus of a large overseas trading bowl, that induced producers to increase productivity and introduce new technologies to meet this additional demand.

Modern studies have shown that the net drain to the British economy from protecting the British Caribbean colonies, or from participating in the East India trade, have been exaggerated. There can be little doubt that trade and empire gave a significant boost to the proliferation and sophistication of financial services, and that this was of considerable benefit to the long-term development of the British economy.

British hegemony in empire and trade by 1815 was such that Britannia did rule the waves......

No historian would argue that trade and empire had a minimal impact on emerging British industrialisation; the question is, rather, exactly how important was that impact?

The current consensus is that trade and empire were significant for British economic growth in the Hanoverian period, even if they were not decisively important. British hegemony in empire and trade by 1815 was such that Britannia did rule the waves; but this would not have been achieved without the strong support provided by the 'military-fiscal' state and the Royal Navy.

The expansion of British imperial endeavours was accompanied by many years of warfare: over half of the 18th century saw the British at war, principally against France.

The ability of the British government to raise taxes and loans to support aggressive military policies by Hanoverian governments, and the superiority of the Royal Navy over other European navies, both played a large part in creating the conditions through which trade and empire could flourish.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/trade_empire_01.shtml)

1780–1832. Britain never had the kind of revolution experienced by France in 1789, but it did come close. In the mid-1770s the country was intoxicated by a great surge of political energy. Re-discovering England's wildernesses, the intellectuals of the "romantic generation" also discovered the plight of the common man, turning nature into a revolutionary force.

	Lord Nelson defeats Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar
	Abolition of Slave Trade
	Duke of Wellington defeats Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo
	World's first railway opens between Stockton and Darlington
	Robert Peel set up the Metropolitan Police force
	The Poor Law set up workhouses, where people without homes or jobs could live in return for doing unpaid work.

Task 1. Who were the following people: Duke of Wellington, Jean-Jacque Rousseau, Richard Davenport, Joseph Wright, Oliver Goldsmith, Philip Thickness, Thomas Buick, Richard Price, George III, Louis XIV, William Wordsworth, Edmund Burke, Charles James Fox, Tom Paine, William Blake, Mary Wollstonecraft, Jacobins, Whigs, William Godwin, William Cobbett, Henry Hunt?

Task 2. What do you know about the following events and places: Arcadia, the Industrial revolution, the Bastille, the Pennines, the French Revolution, Trafalgar, Waterloo?

Task 3. Answer the following questions:

1. What was the impact of J.J. Rousseau’s ideas on British public opinion and social lfe?

2. Describe the initial reactions of British politicians, poets and writers to the French Revolution?

3. What events caused the change of the public attitude towards the French revolution in Britain?

4. Describe the political and social situation in Britain prior and during the French revolution

5. How did the Industrial Revolution affect the economic and social life in Britain?

6. Who was the first British feminist? What do you know about her life and ideas?

7. What were the main events of the Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath in Britain?

To relish- наслаждаться

The gentry – мелкопоместное дворянство

Crag- утес

Crusade – крестовый поход

Chainmales- кольчуга

Terminally diseased – смертельно больной

Antidote -противоядие

Contaminate – портить, засорять

To cram- переполнять

Disciple- ученик

Desolation- запустение

Decay – упадок, разложение

Absentee – отсутствующий землевладелец

To smuggle – ввозить контрабандой

To be bonded – быть связанным

To turn a blind eye – намеренно игнорировать

Tempting- соблазнительный

Sycophantic- угоднический

Scoundrel- негодяй

Forerunners- провозвестники

Blissfully- блаженно

Denounce – осуждать, расторгать

Fraternal- братский

Wrack- сокрушить

Violate- нарушить

Hatchet- топор

Conspicuous – очевидный, заметный

Defiance – вызов, неповиновение

First flush – первый период влюбленности

Pariah- изгой

Exuberance- изобилие

A fifth column – пятая колонна, предатели внутри страны

Salvation - спасение

Lethal danger – смертельная опасность

Habeas Corpus– закон о неприкосновенности личности

Vulnerable- уязвимый

Repression- подавление

Stakes- ставки

Insurrection- восстание

Slaughter –(массовое) убийство

To scar – оставлять след

Fervent – пылкий

At peril to one’s life – с опасностью для жизни

The destitute – бедные, неимущие

Woes- горести

Cradle- колыбель

Work house – работный дом для бедных

Climax – кульминация

Carnage- резня

Slump – резкий спад

Weavers- ткачи

Spinners- прядильщики

Belligerent- воинственный

Parasites – паразиты, живущие за счет других

Yeomanry – добровольческие полки

Artisan- ремесленник

Dismount – сходить, спешиваться

Toembark- отправляться

Ferocity – гнев, ярость

To be embraced – быть встреченным с радостью

Abolitionism – аболиционизм, движение за отмену рабства

Wither – увядать, уменьшаться

Accomplice – сообщник

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