The Whig desire to shut out competitors extended to another department of commerce, namely, the trade with India. The East India Company had been bringing back silks and muslin and cotton goods which were worn by the gallants° as well as by "the mean est cook maids° instead of good English cloth. Hence employment was being diverted from Englishmen to Hindoos, and in 1700 an act was passed by which East India goods might be warehoused for re-exportation, but they might not be sold within the country.
But it was not enough to shut out possible competitors. Definite encouragements to Eng lish trade were given by the Methuen Treaty negotiated with Portugal in 1703, and by the Asiento Contract obtained from Spain in 1713. The Portuguese had prohibited the importation of English cloth, and in 1703 Mr. Methuen was successful in getting this prohibition removed on condition that Portuguese wines were ad mitted into England at two-thirds of the duty on French wines. The trade with Portugal thus opened up was reckoned to be a very large one, and was especially cherished since a large part of the returns' was paid in Brazilian bul lion, with which we could renew our depre ciated coinage.
By the Asiento Treaty the Whigs got a large part of the slave trade with Spanish America into their hands. They obtained the right to import 4,800 negroes annually and to send one vessel of 500 tons to import goods into the Spanish colonies. The West Indies became a great depot for this trade and tinder the cover of the one ship the English got possession of muds of the Spanish-American trade. From every point of view the slave trade commended itself to the general opinion of the time. It encouraged shipping, promoted with Africa— which country took English cloth in payment for slaves— it supplied labor to the West Indies and Virginia and helped the agri cultural development of the colonies. More over the slaves were a means of carrying on trade with Spanish-America. But from the English point of view the . economic effects were still more important. As long as the colonies had slaves they would never take to manufacture, the negro being incapable of the necessary training. The colonies would continue therefore to grow the tropical commodities for. England to distribute.
Sir Robert Walpole began to reform the fiscal system with the same object of stimulat ing industry through commerce. Accordingly he overhauled the book of rates between 1721 24 with the object, to use his own words, of making "the exportation of our own manufac tures and the importation of the commodities used in the manufacturing of them as practical and easy as may be.° He repealed or reduced the import duties on raw materials and arranged for manufactured exports to be duty free. He next began to try and stimulate the warehous ing trade which the Navigation Acts (see NAVIGATION AcTs, article 24) were partly de signed to create. He hoped to make "one general free port and a magazine and common storehouse for all nations.° This system of deliberately building up English industry was continued until the time of the younger Pitt, who, following out the Tory tradition of free intercourse, not merely reopened trade with France but tried to carry free trade between England and Ireland, un successfully however, owing to the hostility of the English manufacturers. He also wished to
allow American ships to trade freely with Eng land and the West Indies in spite of the Navi gation Acts. But. this Tory reversal of the Whig policy was doomed to failure.
The French wars prevented any relaxation of the system for revenue reasons, and it was not until 1846 that the great breach with the Whig policy of the 18th century was definitely made.
During the 18th century English commerce steadily increased in almost every direction, especially with the colonies. In 1699 the ex ports had been estimated at i7,302,716. By 1720 they were 18,681,200 and by 1740, #11, 469,872. In 1760 the figure had reached #15, 579,073 ; in 1771, #17,161,146; while with machine products the total readied #34,381,617, in .1800.
The imports in 1699 were L3,482,586; 1720 they had nearly doubled, being #6,090,083. In 1760 they were 0,832,802; and in 1771 had reached f12,821,995. In 1800 they were L28, 257,781.
It is exceedingly difficult to say whether this increase was a result of the Whig policy or no, but the fact remains that while they held the reins of power English trade extended as they intended it should, and thus prepared the way for the introduction of machinery. It was not accident that the industrial revolution (see GREAT BRITAIN - INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION) Oc curred in England when it did. At the Restor ation English industry was backward; English agriculture undeveloped; and English commerce small. By the end of the 18th cen tury England, in spite of the loss of her American colonies, was the greatest trading . country in the world. Her goods, through sheer cheapness, were forcing their way into every country. She was the great carrier of the world, and the only people that could com pete with her were the Americans, whose ship ping had grown up under English protection. She was able to withstand, by her wealth, the great financial strain of the French wars, and to control the access of colonial produce to Europe.
That many mistakes were made is no doubt true, and Adam Smith did not hesitate to ex pose them; but the objects which the Whigs had at heart were attained to an extraordinary degree during their tenure of power.
Bibliography.—Ashley, W. T., 'The Tory Origin of Free Trade Policy' in 'Surveys, His toric and Economic) (1900) ; Cunningham, W., 'Growth of English Industry and Commerce,' vol. II; 'The Mercantile System) (1903), and 'The 'Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement) (1905); Dowell, 'History of Taxa tion and Taxes in England) (1888) ; Davenant, 'Works) (edited by Sir C. Whitworth); Mac pherson, D., 'Annals of Commerce) (1805); Smith, Adam, 'The Wealth of Whit worth, Sir Charles, 'State of the Trade of Great Britain in its Imports and Exports from the Year 1697> (1776).