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British Mercantile Attitudes towards Imperial Expansion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

W. G. Hynes
W. G. Hynes
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University
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Type
Communications
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , December 1976 , pp. 969 - 979
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

1 Following the interpretation originally advanced by Gallagher, John and Robinson, Ronald, ‘The Imperialism of Free Trade’, Economic History Review (hereafter EcHR), 2nd ser., vi (1953), 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 For earlier criticisms of the ‘Imperialism of Free Trade’, see Donagh, Oliver Mac, ‘The Anti-Imperialism of Free Trade’, ECHR, 2nd ser., xiv (1961–1962), 489–501.Google Scholar

3 Robinson, and Gallagher, , ECHR, 2nd ser., vi (1953), 12.Google Scholar

4 See Platt, D. C. M., Finance, Trade and Politics in British Foreign Policy 1815–1914 (Oxford, 1968).Google Scholar

5 Ibid. See also, by the same author, ‘The Imperialism of Free Trade: Some Reservations’, ECHR, 2nd ser., xxi (1968), 296–306,Google Scholar and ‘Further Objections to an “Imperialism of Free Trade”, 1830–60’, ECHR, 2nd ser., xxvi (1973), 77–91.Google Scholar

6 Piatt, , ECHR, 2nd ser., xxvi (1973), 88.Google Scholar

7 Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Manchester.

8 See, for example, Proceedings of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce (hereafter PMCC), 24 May 1876. Liverpool Journal of Commerce (hereafter LJC), 27 Apr. 1876.Google ScholarReport of the Association of Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom (hereafter RACC), 15 Feb. 1876. Minutes of the Directors of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce (hereafter MGCC), 13 Mar. 1876.

9 Despite the German tariff of 1879. See, for example, RACC, 12 Feb. 1880.

10 Saul, S. B., Studies in British Overseas Trade, 1870–1914 (Liverpool, 1960), pp. 95–103.Google Scholar

11 See Brown, B. H., The Tariff Reform Movement in Great Britain, 1881–1895 (New York, 1943). PP. 1–28.Google Scholar

12 See Pelcovits, Nathan A., Old China Hands and the Foreign Office (New York, 1948), passim.Google Scholar

13 Ibid. See Minutes of the Council of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce (hereafter MBCC, 30 Mar. 1870, 25 May 1870, also 18 May 1871. LJC, 30 Mar. 1870, 15 Dec. 1877,31 Oct. 1878. Liverpool Daily Courier (hereafter LDQ, 30 Mar. 1870, 30 June 1870. Report of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce (hereafter RGCC, 1870; MGCC, 10 Dec. 1877. PMCC, 14 Feb. 1870, 20 June 1870, 28 Nov. 1877, 30 Nov. 1877, 25 Sep. 1878, 31 Oct. 1878.

14 Manchester Guardian (hereafter MG), 1 Feb. 1873,9 Apr. 1873, 12 Apr. 1873. PMCC, 26 Feb. 1873, 30 Apr. 1873, 30 April 1873, 28 May 1873.

15 See, for example, their protests against attempts to cede the tiny Colony of the Gambia to France in 1870 and 1875. PMCC, 29 June 1870, 1 July 1870,20 Dec. 1876,27 Feb. 1878. MG, 1 Feb. 1876. LJC, 18 Sep. 1875. LDC, 18 Dec. 1875, 31 Jan. 1876, 1 Feb. 1876. CO87/98A, Manchester Chamber of Commerce to Colonial Office, 4 July 1870, encl. Memorial signed by 41 London firms to Colonial Office, 15 July 1870. See also Hargreaves, J. D., Prelude to the Partition of West Africa (London, 1963), pp. 165–74.Google Scholar

18 See, for example, MBCC, 16 June 1880, 2 Mar. 1881,4 Apr. 1881. 15 June 1881, 12Dec. 1881. MGCC, 11 Apr. 1881,29 Apr. 1881,9 May 1881, 13 June 1881,21 Sep. 1881. LJC, 1 June 1881, 20 Nov. 1881. PMCC, 30 Mar. 1881, 27 Apr. 1881. The French were believed to be the vanguard of the free trade movement in Europe.

17 See the evidence submitted to the Royal Commission on the Depression of Trade and Industry (Appendix B) Parliamentary Papers, xxii (1886).

18 The Economist, 21 Feb. 1885.

19 MG, 2 May 1882.

20 Chamber of Commerce Journal (hereafter CCJ), 1 11 1882.Google Scholar

21 See, for example, MBCC, 4 Apr. 1883. Report of the Annual Meeting of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, 8 Jan. 1883. Royal Commission on the Depression of Trade and Industry, Parliamentary Papers, xxi, 1886Google Scholar (Appendix A), Replies of the Glasgow and Liverpool Chambers of Commerce. RACC, Feb. 1885.

22 E.g. FO 84/1631, Manchester Chamber of Commerce to Foreign Office, 13 Nov. 1882. FO 403/14, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce to Foreign Office, 5 Dec. 1882; Glasgow Chamber of Commerce to Foreign Office, 20 Dec. 1882; London Chamber of Commerce to Foreign Office, 14 Mar. 1883. FO403/15A, Birmingham Chamber of Commerce to Foreign Office, 24 Apr. 1883.

23 See Ashworth, William, An Economic History of England 1879 to 1939 (London, 1960), p. 219.Google Scholar

24 Colquhoun was a prominent member of the Royal Geographical Society and Deputy Commissioner in British Burma. See CCJ, Supp., 5 Nov. 1887.

25 There had been some commercial interest in such a scheme in the 1860s and 1870s, but this was on a small scale by comparison with interest in the mid-1880s. See Pelcovits, , Old China Hands, pp. 149–53.Google Scholar

26 CCJ, Supp., 5 Nov. 1887.

27 MG, 6Feb. 1883. MGCC, 15 N0V. 1882, 11 Dec. 1882, 8Jan. 1883, 12Dec. 1883. Report of the London Chamber of Commerce, 1883.

28 See Cady, John F., A History of Modern Burma (New York, 1958), pp. 112–20.Google ScholarWoodman, Dorothy, The Making of Burma (London, 1962), pp. 216 ff., 230–4.Google ScholarSinghal, D. P., The Annexation of Upper Burma (Singapore, 1960), pp. 71 ff.Google Scholar

29 CCJ, 5 Nov. 1885

30 Ibid.

31 Report of the Annual Meeting of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, 18 Jan. 1886.

32 Ibid.

33 LDC, 4 Mar. 1886.

34 Ibid.

35 MG, 2 Feb. 1886.

36 Ibid.LDC, 7 Dec. 1885.

37 The percentage of total British exports to the whole of Africa in the 1880s was virtually unchanged from the level of the 1870s. See Schlote, W., British Overseas Trade from 1700 to the 1930s (Oxford, 1952), p. 159.Google Scholar

38 See, for example, FO 83/1807, Report by C. M. Kennedy of a visit to the Associated Chambers of Commerce at Wolverhampton and to the Birmingham and Manchester Chambers of Commerce, 29 Sep.-3 Oct. 1884.

39 See Crowe, S. E., The Berlin West Africa Conference (London, 1942).Google Scholar

40 See Flint, John, Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria (London, 1960)Google Scholar and Slade, Ruth, King Leopold's Congo (London, 1962).Google Scholar

41 See Newbury, C.W., ‘Victorians, Republicans, and the Partition of West Africa’, Journal of African History, iii, no. 3 (1962), 493–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42 See, for example, FO 84/1752, London Chamber of Commerce to Foreign Office, 21 Jan. 1885. FO 84/1781, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce to Foreign Office, 5 Feb. 1885.

43 FO 84/1737, Abadare et al. to Foreign Office, 22 Apr. 1885. Mackinnon Papers (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), James Hutton to William Mackinnon, 24 July 1885. See also Galbraith, John S., Mackinnon and East Africa 1878–1895. A Study in the ‘New Imperialism’ (Cambridge, 1972), pp. 96–7.Google Scholar

44 FO 84/1737, Frederick Holmwood to James Hutton, 10 Apr. 1885, encl. in Hutton to Foreign Office, 20 Apr. 1885.

45 CO 96/154, Manchester Chamber of Commerce to Colonial Office, 7 Dec. 1883.

46 Report of the Annual Meeting of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, 1889.

47 See, for example, CO 879/28/355, London Chamber of Commerce to Colonial Office, 14 Jan. 1887; Liverpool Chamber to Colonial Office, 11 Mar. 1887; Manchester Chamber of Commerce to Colonial Office, 8 Feb. 1887. CO 147/68, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce to Colonial Office, 11 July 1888. PMCC, 25 July 1888.

48 MG, 1 Nov. 1887.

49 MBCC, 18 June 1890.

50 For business attitudes towards the colonies of settlement, see Tyler, J. E., The Struggle for Imperial Unity, 1868–1895 (London, 1938), pp. 49–65.Google Scholar

51 This notion – a virtual impossibility according to the followers of Say and Ricardo – gained increasingly wide currency in the 1880s.

52 MG, 17 Apr. 1884.

53 See, for example, Lord Carnarvon’s address to a meeting at Woodhay in West Hampshire, The Standard, 1 June 1885. Mr Rowland Winn in a speech to his constituents at Gainsborough, ibid. 3 June 1885. Sir Charles Dilke in an address to the Bradford Chamber of Commerce, Liverpool Courier, 20 Jan. 1885. Mr Ashmead Bardett in a speech to the Leamington Workingmen's Conservative Association, ibid. 21 Jan. 1885.

54 See, for example, Chamberlain, M. E., ‘Clement Hill's Memoranda and the British Interest in East Africa’, English Historical Review, LXXXVII (1972), 533–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

55 Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser., vol. 302, p. 60, cited in Singhal, , The Annexation of Upper Burma, p. 85.Google Scholar See also Churchill's letters to Dufferin in Sep., Oct. and Nov. 1885, cited in Moore, R. J., Liberalism and Indian Politics, 1885–86 (London, 1966), p. 48.Google Scholar

56 Piatt, D. C. M., Finance, Trade and Politics, pp. 304–5,Google Scholar and McLean, David, ‘Commerce, Finance, and British Diplomatic Support in China, 1885–86’, ECHR, 2nd ser., xxvi (1973), 464–76.Google Scholar

57 Ibid.

58 SeeHopkins, A. G., ‘Economic Imperialism in West Africa: Lagos, 1880–92’, ECHR, 2nd ser., xxi (1968), 580–606,Google Scholar and Dumett, R. E., ‘British Official Attitudes in Relation to Economic Development in the Gold Coast, 1874–1905’ (University of London Ph.D. thesis, 1966), pp. 149–85.Google Scholar