To what extent did Britain benefit from her empire in the eighteenth century?

University Degree Historical and Philosophical studies

Ian Bishop

Britain’s impact upon the world and the importance of her overseas involvements in the eighteenth century was at least as significant as in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the ages normally taken as the epitome of British imperialism. The eighteenth century saw Britain at near constant war with France, and the role of the empire in providing the revenues that could finance the war grew in importance as the century progressed. Unlike in previous centuries, conflict now centred around the colonial possessions of the two countries, and the need to protect such possessions spurred a new era of military thought and strategy. By the end of the period, Britain was a truly global power, with fleets and armies deployed all over the world, a direct result of superior management and employment of her empire. It was clear that the empire had been crucial in Britain’s victory over France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, but to assume that this was the sole advantage the Britain gained from her imperial endeavours would be to gravely underestimate the value of the empire.

The most obvious example of the benefits the empire delivered to the mother country are visible in the form of the wealth it supplied that was necessary for the continuation of the wars against France from 1793 to 1815. The conflict had quickly developed into total war in a modern sense. Sustained and effective resistance to France required the greatest ever mobilisation of Britain’s manpower and financial resources. Over a tenth of Britain’s adult males were drafted into the armed services during the war, and even then the army and navy constantly demanded more. By 1810 there were 145,000 sailors, 31,000 marines and 300,000 regular soldiers under arms. The total cost of the war has been estimated at just over one billion pounds, of which 830 million pounds was consumed by the army and the navy alone. A significant part of this sum came from increased customs and excise duties, which was why it was so important to maintain the flow of British trade. Without an extensive overseas empire with which to trade, Napoleon’s Continental Blockade, which prevented British good from being sold on the continent, would have certainly have brought Britain to her knees. The empire allowed the British to wage total war, and at every stage she outmatched her antagonist when it came to raising cash. This meant that when the military situation deteriorated, as it did in 1797 and again after 1806, Britain could continue to fight, even without allies. This ability to continue the war counted for a great deal, as the Franco-British conflict was essentially a war of attrition. Wearing down France through weakening its economy had been central to British strategy since the outbreak of the war. Remembering the triumphs of 1759-63 the British government in 1793 looked to the sea as a means of bringing about the breakdown of France, and the strengthening of Britain. The importance of this strategy was explained to the Commons in March 1801 by Henry Dundas, the Secretary of State for War, when he stated: “…the primary object of our attention ought to be, by what means we can most effectively increase those resources upon which depend our naval superiority, and at the same time diminish of appropriate to ourselves those which might otherwise enable the enemy to contend with us in this respect.” The empire was crucial in delivering such resources. By the mid eighteenth century, much of the wood required for the first-rate men-of-war in the Royal Navy came form the great Canadian forests. Hemp and other essential supplies for the Navy also flowed from Britain’s overseas possessions. This type of war was an imperial contest, in which Britain picked off her opponent’s colonies and swept her merchantmen form the seas at the same time as preserving, even enlarging, her own commerce.

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The colonies that Britain acquired from France, such as Tobago, Martinique, St Lucia, all added to the benefits of the British Empire. These lands, along with others captured from the Spanish and the Dutch, provided sugar, tea and new markets for British goods. Throughout the eighteenth century, Britain had benefited from the natural resources she harvested from her overseas possessions. Cotton, silk, tea, coffee, sugar and hemp were but a few of the highly useful commodities that tropical and sub-tropical colonies provided. Britain was soon the largest market for all tropical produce, and held an extensive network of large plantations in the West Indies. Britain soon established herself as the single greatest shipper of African slaves, exporting some three million of them, on whom the agriculture of the new world depended. The islands and coastal regions of the eastern Americas saw the spectacular expansion of such agriculture, based on crops grown for export to Europe. Britain was at the centre of this trade, and the revenues from the import duties levied by the government all assisted the creation of the wealthy British state.

In India, Britain took this trading advantage further, gaining not merely commercial dominance but also territorial and political ascendance. In the eighteenth century the British ceased to be simply traders in Asia, and became rulers of Indian provinces as a result of the endeavours of the East India Company. The careers of great men such as Clive carved out a role for Britain in India which would mean that instead of competing against other Indian powers as an equal, Britain would be the dominant power, capable of imposing her power of the entire subcontinent, and then beyond. In the nineteenth century, the Indian jewel in the imperial crown would assume even greater importance, yet its significance should not be underestimated in the eighteenth century. A large part of military strategy in the Revolutionary wars was concerned with the defence of India. When Napoleon took and army of 17,000 men to Egypt to sever the Indian land route, Britain rushed reinforcements to India, fearing that were India to be lost then the war effort would collapse.

The near constant war that characterised the eighteenth century coupled with imperial developments to give Britain the benefit of the latest military thought. The effect of the French wars on advancing British military thinking cannot be underrated, but Britain also learned valuable military lessons from its imperial experience. In the eighteenth century there were comparatively few military disasters in colonial conflicts. The general military success of the British was very important in broader imperial terms, since overwhelming military victories such as Plassy all contributed to a growing reputation of British military invincibility in the East. This fear of British Redcoats was a powerful force in imperial diplomacy, and would eventually lead to the highly effective ‘gunboat diplomacy’ of the nineteenth century. As important as military advancement was, the development of an imperial method of diplomacy was equally useful in building the empire. The lessons of India were the most useful in this respect, and the extremely clever manipulation of Indian internal politics to deliver British hegemony set a pattern of divide and rule that would allow geographically tiny Britain to dominate massive countries with vast populations. By the end of the period, Britain had been so successful in creating an overseas empire which gave the appearance of great centralised stability that future rivalries with European powers would be conducted on imperial terms, with any challenger having the acquisition of an empire to rival Britain’s as their primary goal. Although such imperial rivalries led to the potential for great European wars, we cannot but consider the relative peace in Europe in the nineteenth century as a benefit that Britain gained from her enormous imperial holdings.

The empire not only created new trends in British history, but fuelled and altered existing ones. The process of industrialisation, begun in Britain in the eighteenth century, was assisted by the growth of the empire. The influx of new commodities that could be found in the colonial holdings led to innovation, whilst the trade the grew up around the empire fired the ship building industry as Britain’s merchant and navy fleets grew to be the largest in the world. The demands for weapons of war helped the iron and steel industries grow, whilst the vast markets to be found in possessions such as India consumed many good and products made in the workshops of Britain. The administrative demands of the empire augmented and developed the British flair for creating effective administrations based around institutional frameworks. The financial networks established in the eighteenth century, such as the Bank of England which became the central bank and currency manager of the state in the nineteenth century, would serve as an essential basis for the expansion of industrialisation and the creation of a modern economy in the nineteenth century. The empire itself was primarily and economic creature, created to provide markets for Britain’s ever expanding production. As it developed, it became what can be termed as the worlds first large-scale international free trade area. The British benefited greatly from this development, and although it occurred outside of our period, the importance of the empire as an instrument in the economic ascendancy of Britain must not be underrated.

The empire also offered more intangible benefits to Britain. Alongside bringing revenues to the British government through taxation, profit to British industry from export and military power through size, the empire prompted an widespread and profound cultural shift in Britain. The emergence of an imperial consciousness in the late eighteenth century was a development that was to influence the nature of British history well into the twentieth century. The expansion of the empire, and the opportunities it offered for men of talent, created an ethos in Britain of the self-made man. This social repercussion of British imperialism coupled with domestic economic developments that were beginning to concentrate significant wealth in the hands of proto-industrialists who had built their business empires on their own merits. Combined, these factors led to the emergence of a social ethic that favoured dynamism and hard work. It is important to note that this did not displace the landed elite as the predominant social group within our period, but it did mark an immensely important change that led to the formation of a national character that would be of much use in the nineteenth century. The self-confidence that the empire fostered in the British, particularly in the rising middle classes who benefited handsomely from the growth in trade, allowed them to build upon previous successes. This confidence engendered not only further imperial expansion, but also great scientific advances, as the notion that man could advance himself through his own endeavours became a driving force behind an emerging age of progress. Although modern popular thought tends to regard such confidence as nationalistic hubris, one would be foolish to deny that such an air of confidence was beneficial for Britain. After centuries of uncertainty, then end of the eighteenth century marked a new age in which the British could not only feel secure, but could also rightly believe themselves to be part of the greatest nation on earth.

There were many costs that the empire incurred on the British people. The great number of wars in the period were the inevitable consequence of rising British power, which represented a challenge to the established powers of Europe. The heavy burden of wartime taxation, and the general privations of war caused a very considerable degree of suffering in Britain. However, compared to the gains that were reaped from the imperial adventure, in the form of tax revenues, industrial and financial advancement, military glory and the emergence of Britain as the predominant world power, these costs were insignificant. It is fashionable in the twenty first century to take an overly humanistic view of such sufferings, but it is important to remember that in the context of the eighteenth century, none of the distresses caused by the empire seemed much different to the stresses of previous centuries that had been undertaken as a matter of survival rather than as a matter of advancement, as they were in the eighteenth.

In conclusion, it is clear that Britain benefited greatly from her empire in the eighteenth century. There were many setbacks, the greatest and most obvious being the loss of the American colonies, but none of these proved fatal. Indeed, the loss of American occurred only after Anglophone domination in the colonies had been established, a fact that was to work to British advantage for centuries to follow, and indeed still does. The empire in the eighteenth century was most significant in that it not only delivered immediate benefits in the form of markets for British good and sources of new raw materials, but also that it formed the basis for even greater advances in the next century, when the empire would expand to a size never before or since witnessed in the course of modern history.

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