Overview

One major issue which featured permanently in Victorian periodicals throughout the century was Britain's external economic policy. In 1815 Britain was a protectionist power - an economic cordon surrounded her empire, with her mercantile marine and naval power underwritten by the Navigation Acts. By 1860, almost all of this restrictive legislation had disappeared. The extraordinary path to freer trade was marked by a series of key events: Lord Liverpool's government made the first moves towards reducing trade restrictions, followed in the next decade by the rise of the Anti Corn Law League. Peel's great tariff-reducing budgets of 1842 and 1845 helped to ensure that by 1846 free trade was almost inevitable. Opposition to free trade never entirely died away. Within twenty years, Peel and Gladstone's work was being seriously called into question as foreign competition began to increase. In the 1880s and 90s the Fair Trade movement brought the question of foreign economic policy back onto the agenda of politics. The great Victorian and Edwardian periodicals followed every aspect of this remarkable debate. The British middle classes were presented with information, opinion and controversy upon each side of these outstanding economic questions. The issues were surrounded by immense political excitement, often entwined in larger debates about Britain's destiny as a world power. This authoritative collection makes available to the economist for the first time the key contemporary writings on free trade and protectionism.

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9780415133258

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