To what extent was Pitt responsible for the national revival after 1783?

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Steven Howe 12C                                                                                                               History (Gould)

To what extent was Pitt responsible for the national revival after 1783?

When Pitt came to power in 1783 the country was in dire financial straits, following the debt and dislocation caused by the American War of independence. Some historians claim full credit can be given to Pitt for facilitating a ‘national revival’ that is restoring financial confidence in the country’s economy. The key elements of Pitt’s approach to ‘national revival’ combined a series of financial, administrative and commercial policies, which operated both simultaneously and on a number of different levels. We are going to be looking at ‘to what extent was Pitt responsible for the national revival’ and we are going to look at what policies he implemented, how he did this and who’s idea it was. The policies are:

  • Targeting Smuggling
  • New Taxes
  • Efficiency of Taxes
  • Sinking fund
  • Overseas Trade
  • Reduced spending

Pitt contributed to a national revival through taxation policies. He introduced new taxes to raise revenue and he also streamlined the collection of the taxes.

  Evans describes the first strand of Pitt’s approach to taxation as ‘little more than a shuffling of the Hanoverian pack’. In other words, he was not primarily a financial innovator, but simply varied the range of luxury goods, which were subject to tax. There was a framework that was based on the principle that the government should raise most of its revenue through indirect taxation. By ensuring that the goods taxed were those consumed by the wealthier classes. This meant that there was likely to be a sudden rise in price of basic foodstuff such as bread; people weren’t happy with the rise in price. Pitt basically introduced new taxes for the benefit of getting the government more revenue and making sure these taxes only targeted the wealthier proportion of the country. The type of products he taxed were luxuries like hair-powder, horses and products that only the wealthier could afford. However this policy might not have worked because it might have meant an increase in black-market trade. People brought luxuries like hair-powder and horses into the country to sell to the rich illegally, so they would not have to pay tax on the products.

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Pitt rationalised the system of taxation rather than embark on a radical programme of reform. While attempting to meet the immediate need to raise revenue, Pitt tried to avoid the dangers of overtaxing expanding areas of commercial activity. He explored new ways to gain revenue, but often with little success. For example he introduced tax on windows, an attempt to capitalise on the increasing trend for private wealth to be converted into housing property. However this was limited because of the tendency of the owners of large properties to respond by simply blocking up their windows. It is fair to ...

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