How successful were Peel's economic and financial policies during 1841-1846?

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How successful were  Peel’s economic and financial policies during  1841-1846?

   On examining the period of 1841 and 1846 we can assume with regards to Peel’s notoriety as “Prosperity Peel” that this was  an effect derived from his successful economic and financial reforms. We will discover that these policies appear to act as the foundation for Britain’s prosperous years in the 1850s and 1860s. Nevertheless, we will also determine whether or not these policies were truly successful, or in hindsight  question whether they should  take responsibility for Britain’s economic decline at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century.

 

  After winning the 1841 General Election upon the assumption that he would maintain the Corn Laws, he imposed a doctrine of free trade which originated from his opponents. The Whig Report of the Select Committee on Import Duties (1840) recognized the need for tariff reform. Peel believed that free trade would importantly increase the countries prosperity as the financial circumstances were desperate at the time of 1841 when Peel became Prime Minister. Peel’s reduction of duties made prices cheaper and increased sales, this would later lead to a further division within the Tory Party, which becomes a unrelenting battle. This  significantly acknowledges that Peel’s economic policies contest the established  principles of the Tory party and consequently appears  only slightly less incompetent than the Whig’s immeasurable flaws.

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Robert Peel  definitely believed in attaining money from the nobility rather than the poor . Observing that the wealthier community were heavily mortgaged it has been asserted that ‘Peel’s Act’ was the cause of the economic difficulties of farmers in the 1820s. Peel’s reintroduction of income tax, which Liverpool had repealed in 1816 had put taxes more heavily upon the rich completely contrasted to any Tory economic policy and furthermore weakened  Peel’s relationship with the Tory party.

Peel sustained a fundamental principle when he stated; 'We must make this country a cheap country for living’, looking at the range ...

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