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Direction and Purpose in British Imperial Policy, 1783–1801

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

D. L. Mackay
D. L. Mackay
Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellington
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Extract

Since the publication in 1952 of the first volume of V. T. Harlow's The Founding of the Second British Empire 1763–1793, the debate on the nature and concept of empire in the twenty years after the American war of independence has focused on the questions of motivation and direction in imperial expansion. Harlow himself established the terms of the debate. The hiatus which traditional historiography had established in colonial affairs as a consequence of American independence, was swept away to be replaced with a set of themes appropriate to an empire which was undergoing continuous change after the Seven Years War. Two of these diemes in particular have caught the imagination of historians. As trouble and disenchantment spread in the colonies across the Atlantic, there was a marked swing in imperial direction towards die east – to Asia and the Pacific – where the second empire was to have its core. But the change was not only one of direction. The new empire reflected a revulsion against colonization and a clear preference for trade over dominion.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , September 1974 , pp. 487 - 501
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

1 Harlow, V. T., The Founding of the Second British Empire 1763–1795 (London, 1952, 1964).Google Scholar

2 See, for example, Hyam, R., ‘British Imperialism in the late Eighteenth Century’, Historical Journal, X (1967), 113–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarMarshall, P., ‘The First and Second British Empires: A Question of Demarcation’, History, XLIX (1964), 13–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPares, R., review in E.H.R., LXVIII (04 1953), 282–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 B.M. Add. MSS 42780A, fos. 143–8, Rose Papers, 1808–9.

4 O'Brien, E., The Foundation of Australia (London, 1937).Google Scholar For the opposite view see Blainey, G., The Tyranny of Distance (Melbourne, 1966):Google ScholarRoe, M., ‘Australia's Place in the “Swing to the East”, 1788–1810’, Historical Studies, VIII (30 05 1958),Google Scholar and the same author's, The Journal and Letters of Captain Charles Bishop (Cambridge, 1967):Google ScholarFieldhouse, D. K., ‘British Colonial Policy’, in Abbott, C. J. and Nairn, N. B. (eds., Economic Growth of Australia (Melbourne, 1969).Google Scholar

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8 The First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Howe. Howe to Sydney, 26 Dec. 1784, H.R.N.S.W., vol. I, pt. 2, p. 10.

9 There is an undated copy of the report in H.O. 42/7.

10 Log of Che Nautilus, Adm. 51/627. Thomson's Journal, Adm. 55/92, fo. 26.

11 Pitt to Grenville, 2 Oct. 1785, H.M.C. (Dropmore) 30, I, p. 257. T. B. Thomson to P. Stephens, 15 Aug. 1786, Adm. 1/2594.

12 Sydney to Lords of Treasury, 18 Aug. 1786, H.R.N.S.W., vol. I, pt. 2, pp. 14–17.

13 On Madagascar, P.R.O. (Chatham), 30/8, 363, fos. 78–81, about 6 June 1785; and the correspondence of Captain Blankett in H.O. 42/9. The scheme for Plettenburg Bay originated from Colonel William Dalrymple, and was supported by the East India Company, see Scottish Record Office, G.D. 51 (Melville), 3, 17, 1–3, Sept.-10. 1785.Google Scholar

14 The ‘Heads of a Plan’ is in H.R.N.S.W., vol. I, pt. 2, pp. 17–20. Cf. Banks' plans for the Breadfruit expedition of 1787 in H.O. 42/11, 42, 30 Mar. 1787; to Anton Hove for the Nautilus voyage, H.O. 29/2, 22, 12 Sept. 1785; for Hove's expedition to India in 1787, British Museum of Natural History, Banks Correspondence (D.T.C.) vol. IV, fos. 122–7; for Vancouver's expedition, H.O. 42/18, 20 Feb. 1791.

15 B.T. 3/2, 109; B.T. 5/5, fo. 192, 13 Oct. 1789. See also, Shaw, A. G. L. ‘The Hollow Conqueror and the Tyranny of Distance’, Historical Studies, vol. XIII, 50 (04 1968), 195–203, and Blainey's reply ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 H.R.N.S.W., vol. I, pt. 2, p. 89.Google Scholar

17 Hyam, , op. cit. pp. 122–3,Google Scholar notes a tendency for Britain to give a pardy economic interpretation to an acquisition more probably decided on strategic grounds, and he cites Canada and the Cape as examples. In the case of N.S.W. the economic and strategic arguments provided a gloss on a penal necessity.

18 See Mackay, D. L., ‘British Interest in the Southern Oceans, 1782–1794’, New Zealand Journal of History,III (10 1969), 124–42.Google Scholar

19 Ehrman, J., The Younger Pitt (London, 1969), p. 329.Google Scholar

20 The Later Correspondence 0f George III, Aspinall, A. (ed.), vols. I-III. Aspinall lists 48 cabinet minutes for the period Dec. 1783 to Dec. 1801.Google Scholar

21 Ibid., I, 471, 475.

22 Nelson, R. R., The Home Office, 1782–1801 (Durham, N.C., 1969), p. 15.Google Scholar

23 Ibid. pp. 20–1.

21 Manning, H. T., British Colonial Government after the American Revolution (New Haven, 1933), p. 90.Google ScholarDerry, J. W. gives a similar portrait in Charles James Fox (London, 1972), p. 125.Google Scholar

25 On the administration of the Home Office in this period, see Nelson, , op. cit.Google Scholar

26 Irish sensitivity on trading issues may be gauged from the caution with which the government proceeded on the subject of the maritime fur trade. See Grenville to Westmorland, 13 Jan. 1791, H.M.C. (Dropmore), 30, II, 14.

27 Shelburne's efforts are detailed in Harlow, , op. cit., vol. 1, chs, 6–9.Google ScholarSemmel, B., The Rise of Free Trade Imperialism (Cambridge, 1970), discusses the debt of Shelburne and Pitt to Tucker and Smith.Google Scholar

28 Ritcheson, C. R., Aftermath of Revolution (Dallas, 1969), pt. VII.Google Scholar

29 Semmel, , op. cit., suggests the survival of certain mercantilist doctrines into the ‘free trade’ era.Google Scholar

30 These experiments are detailed in B.T. 6/246, 6/140.

31 Quoted in Maclachlan, A. D., ‘The Road to Peace’, in Holmes, G. (ed.), Britain after the Glorious Revolution (London, 1969), p. 198.Google Scholar

32 Christie, I. R., Myth and Reality (London, 1970). p. 16.Google Scholar