Empire/identity

Question 1

Empire - primary sources

Answer 1

Pepys’ Diary
Grenville quotes
Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722)

Question 2

Key conflicts

Answer 2

Nine Years War (1688-97)
Wars of Spanish Succession (1702-12)
7 Years War (1756-63)
American Revolutionary Wars (1776-83)
French Revolutionary (1792-1802) and Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815)

Question 3

Key legislation - commerce

Answer 3

1651, 1660, 1663 - Navigation Acts
1733 - Molasses Act
1764 - Sugar Act

Question 4

Key legislation - taxation

Answer 4

1765 - Stamp Act
1766 - Declaratory Act
1774 - Coercive Acts

Question 5

Key legislation - slavery

Answer 5

1788 - Dolben Act

1807 - Abolition of Slave Trade

Question 6

Key legislation - Britain

Answer 6

1707 - Acts of Union (Scotland)

1800 - Acts of Union (Ireland)

Question 7

Military stats

Answer 7

Lenman: 10,000 garrison in America following 1763 Peace of Paris (cause of taxing colonies in 1764)

Question 8

Navy historiography

Answer 8

Hunt: Navy increase in costs: 1.8mil 1689-97 to 2.4 mil 1702-13. “Maritime communities paid a disproportionately high percentage of the mortality cost of the imperial state” - 20% women heading households by c18.
1692 - sinking of ship Modena (9 years in court for wages)
Duffy: 35,000 men sent to fight French in Caribbean by 1796; 14,000 died from disease. Naval power increased by 32.8% between 1790-1800’s. 26 British colonies in 1792 to 43 by 1816.
Whelan: end of Napoleonic wars: 1/3 of navy = Irish and 1/4 = black.

Question 9

Mechanics of Empire

Answer 9

Bowen: Empire an “alliance of mutual benefit” betw. financial/mercantile/pol. elite and government. Rise of
the “gentlemanly capitalist”

Question 10

East India Co. info

Answer 10

Bowen - 500 in mid c18; 40,000 in 1830. Army = 200,000 men in 1805; 140,000 Indian soldiers in 1815.

Question 11

“Identity” quotes

Answer 11

Bowen: Overseas territory “synonymous with national wealth, strength, and prestige”; “overseas activity was a truly British enterprise”
Marshall and Law: Empire and maritime supremacy a “distinctive feature of British identity”
Greene: “Glorious Revolution underlined this equation of Englishness with liberty”
Steele: c18 trend: “legitimacy of the elected over the annointed and appointed”

Question 12

West Indies info

Answer 12

Ward: w.Indies provided 40% Europe’s total sugar in 1700, rose to 60% by 1815.

Question 13

British consumption of exotic commodities

Answer 13

Walvin: imports part of a broader “rise of modern material consumption”
Key commodities: tobacco, tea, sugar, coffee, rice, cotton
Price: whale-oil, fur, timber key. London = 78% trade from 1699-1701 (competition from Liverpool later)

Question 14

Sugar

Answer 14

Ward: sugar consumption = 20lb of sugar per person p.a. in 1800 vs. 2lb for French in 1780.
Price: from 4lb. per head in 1700/09 to 11lb per head in 1770.

Question 15

Tea

Answer 15

Walvin: 1801-10 = 24 mil lbs of tea consumed in the UK, doubled by 1850.
5 mil. pieces of china imported p.a. - total od 215 mil by 1791.
5% of English GDP from tea!
75% tea consumed in England smuggled because of high tariffs.

Question 16

Slave trade

Answer 16

Walvin: 1820-70: 1600 illegal slave trade ships seized by the Royal Navy.
Richardson: 3.4 mil slaves from Africa between 1662-1807; 95% on British ships; 10% lost until 1788 Dolben Act; 2/3 male aged 15-30. Voyages went from £3-8000 per journey over period.

Question 17

Cotton

Answer 17

Walvin: Western cotton: 22 mil kilos p.a in early c18, rose to 726 mil.
Price: 64% raw cotton: from West Indies in 1770.

Question 18

Rice

Answer 18

Price: re-exports = 87% imports in 17178-23 and 89% in 1753

Question 19

Metalware

Answer 19

Price: exports to empire increased tenfold 1699-1774.

Question 20

Taxes

Answer 20

Steele: customs and excise taxes in 1760: 68% gov. revenues.

Question 21

Population movement:

Answer 21

Horn: Transportation Act sent toal of 49,000 felons to America 1718-1775.
in the c17 70% of total 1 mil. emigrants to plantations were English; in c18 = scots and Irish dominated. 69% had artisanal backgrounds; 1/2 went as indentured servants.
Whelan: up to 60,000 Irish emigrated in the 1790’s.

Question 22

Scotland

Answer 22

Devine: Scots imports = 10% of British in 1738, rose to 40% in 1765 - especially Tobacco.
Linen output rose x 4 in value between 1736-40 and 1768-22. 20,000 Hand loom weavers employed and 230,000 in total.
44% colonial merchants in Scotland had landed estates between 1770 and 1815 (eg. Lewis Island)

Question 23

Ireland

Answer 23

Bartlett: England took up to 85% of the value of Irish exports in 1800.
Key Irish trade: food provisions (salt beef, pork, cheese) - this formed 50% direct exports to North America.
1630-1775: 165,000 total emigrants, 10,000 of which = convicts.