deck_economic_optimised

Question 1

KEY TERM: What is laissez-faire?

Answer 1

The doctrine that government should not interfere in the workings of the market economy – wages and prices should settle naturally by supply and demand. Associated with Adam Smith (1723–90) and David Ricardo (1772–1823)

Question 2

KEY TERM: What is mercantilism?

Answer 2

An economic policy that used tariffs, regulations and trade controls to protect national industry and generate wealth. Liverpool’s government moved away from mercantilism towards Free Trade in the 1820s

Question 3

KEY TERM: What is consumerism?

Answer 3

The trend of wanting to acquire more goods and services – by 1832 this had emerged as a new phenomenon among Britain’s growing middle classes

Question 4

KEY TERM: What is a joint-stock bank?

Answer 4

A limited liability company engaged in banking, funded by shareholders whose liability is limited to their subscription. The Bank Act (1826) allowed banks other than the Bank of England to operate as joint-stock banks

Question 5

KEY TERM: What is speculation (economic)?

Answer 5

The forming of a theory or investment based on hope rather than firm evidence – Liverpool blamed excessive speculation for the commercial crisis of 1825

Question 6

What trade principles did Liverpool’s government officially follow?

Answer 6

Laissez-faire – the belief that wages and prices would naturally settle at the most market-efficient level without government interference

Question 7

What was the contradiction in Liverpool’s government’s approach to laissez-faire?

Answer 7

The government claimed to follow laissez-faire but intervened directly to maintain corn prices through the Corn Laws – protecting the landed interest rather than letting the market operate freely

Question 8

Why were the budgets of 1824 and 1825 historically significant?

Answer 8

They were the first to apply the principles of free trade in practice, fundamentally redirecting British economic policy

Question 9

Who were the 1824 and 1825 free trade budgets mainly the work of?

Answer 9

William Huskisson (President of the Board of Trade) and J.F. Robinson (Chancellor of the Exchequer)

Question 10

What specific measures did the 1824 and 1825 free trade budgets introduce?

Answer 10

Customs duties lowered on raw materials for textile and metal industries; protective duties abolished; prohibitions on manufactured goods entering Britain removed; import prohibition on silk replaced with a 30% duty; raw wool permitted to export for first time

Question 11

What did the 1823 Reciprocity Act do?

Answer 11

Encouraged trade treaties on the basis of mutual tariff reductions; set up preferential duties for raw materials from British colonies (e.g. Indian silk, Australian wool)

Question 12

How did Huskisson modify the Navigation Code?

Answer 12

He removed anachronistic restrictions on trading in foreign ships, but retained the condition that trade within the British Empire had to be carried in British ships

Question 13

What were the economic effects of the free trade measures of the 1820s?

Answer 13

Stimulated industry and trade, lowered prices for manufactured goods, increased British exports and shipping, and greatly reduced smuggling

Question 14

What ended the ‘commercial upturn’ in 1825?

Answer 14

A financial crisis caused by over-confident speculation – investors bought domestic and foreign assets that then fell sharply in value; banks failed and businesses went bankrupt

Question 15

What did Liverpool blame for the 1825 commercial crisis?

Answer 15

The ‘spirit of speculation’ going beyond all reasonable bounds – he had warned of this the previous year

Question 16

What did the Bank Act of 1826 do?

Answer 16

Made it legal for banks other than the Bank of England to operate as joint-stock banks; these could issue notes and had a more robust financial foundation than the small private banks that had collapsed in the crisis

Question 17

When did the Bank of England resume cash payments (gold) and why was this significant?

Answer 17

1819 – it signalled commitment to financial stability and won the support of respected economists like David Ricardo; the value of British currency rose and gold reserves increased

Question 18

Why had the Bank of England suspended cash payments originally?

Answer 18

In 1797, due to heavy government borrowing and nervous private investors withdrawing gold; this created inflation through excess paper money

Question 19

What was coal production in 1815?

Answer 19

Approximately 16 million tons

Question 20

What was coal production by 1830?

Answer 20

Just under 30 million tons

Question 21

How efficient did coal use in iron production become between 1800 and 1830?

Answer 21

In 1800 it took 8 tons of coal to produce 1 ton of pig iron; by 1830 this figure had fallen to 3.5 tons

Question 22

What happened to pig iron production between 1815 and 1830?

Answer 22

Output approximately doubled

Question 23

What proportion of coal produced was used in the iron industry by 1830?

Answer 23

Around half

Question 24

What was the most important technical development in the cotton industry after 1812?

Answer 24

The widespread adoption of the power loom – numbers in operation rose from ~2,400 in 1803 to ~100,000 by 1833

Question 25

Who made two key improvements to the power loom in 1803 and 1813?

Answer 25

William Horrocks, a Stockport cotton manufacturer

Question 26

Who developed a reliable cast-iron power loom in 1822?

Answer 26

Richard Roberts – this version was extensively used in textile factories and revolutionised cloth production

Question 27

What proportion of the industrial workforce was engaged in cotton by the 1830s?

Answer 27

Approximately 30%

Question 28

What proportion of all British exports were textiles by the 1830s?

Answer 28

0.7

Question 29

What proportion of Britain's imports did raw cotton account for by the 1830s?

Answer 29

Around one fifth

Question 30

By how much did raw cotton imports increase from 1810–19 to 1820–29?

Answer 30

From 96 million lbs to 173 million lbs – roughly an 80% increase

Question 31

What was the most important technical improvement in the iron industry during this period?

Answer 31

The hot-air blast furnace, developed by James Beaumont Neilson by 1828

Question 32

How did the hot-air blast furnace work?

Answer 32

It heated the blast of air between the steam engine and furnace to a specific temperature, producing better-quality iron while allowing raw coal to replace coke – making the process cheaper and more efficient

Question 33

What invention addressed safety in coal mines in 1813?

Answer 33

The Davy lamp, invented by Sir Humphrey Davy – it inserted gauze around the naked flame to prevent methane gas explosions

Question 34

What was the 'Puffing Billy' and when was it invented?

Answer 34

A locomotive invented by William Hedley in 1812 at a Tyneside colliery

Question 35

When did George Stephenson build his first locomotive and where?

Answer 35

1814, at Killingworth Colliery, Northumberland

Question 36

When did the Stockton to Darlington railway open?

Answer 36

1825 – the first passenger railway using steam locomotives, engineered by Stephenson

Question 37

When did the Liverpool to Manchester railway open?

Answer 37

1830 – marking the beginning of large-scale public railways in Britain

Question 38

What was Stephenson's famous locomotive that won the Rainhill Trials?

Answer 38

The Rocket, 1829 – it reached 30 mph (48 km/h)

Question 39

Why was the railway described as one of the key developments of the industrial age?

Answer 39

It allowed goods and people to be transported at speed and low cost; created large-scale employment; gave a massive boost to the iron and coal industries

Question 40

What was the tonnage of ships built in Britain in 1820 vs 1830?

Answer 40

66,700 in 1820; 75,500 in 1830 – reflecting growth in export trade; note the first steamship was not launched until 1838 so all ships were still under sail in this period

Question 41

What was the UK population in 1811, 1821 and 1831?

Answer 41

1811: 12 million; 1821: over 14 million; 1831: 16.3 million

Question 42

Why was population growth faster in urban than rural areas in this period?

Answer 42

Migration to industrial towns for work, and higher rates of early marriage and births in crowded urban areas

Question 43

What caused the continuing development of steam power to be so economically important?

Answer 43

More factories powered by steam (rather than water) allowed an increasing variety of products for home and export markets, spreading industrialisation to previously untouched parts of the country

Question 44

What were the Enclosure Acts?

Answer 44

Parliamentary measures compelling the enclosure of open farmland; many were passed during the French Wars and continued through the 1820s, reorganising agriculture on a commercial basis

Question 45

What were the economic benefits of enclosure for farmers?

Answer 45

Higher crop yields in enclosed fields justified higher rents; improved crop rotation allowed mixed farming; farmers gained greater security and higher profits to invest in new techniques

Question 46

What were the negative consequences of enclosure?

Answer 46

Agricultural labourers lost access to common land; tenant farmers who took on expensive long leases during the war found themselves overwhelmed by debt repayments when prices fell after 1815

Question 47

Why did agriculture enter a difficult period after 1815?

Answer 47

After a bumper harvest in 1813 prices fell; cheap foreign corn flooded in once the wartime blockade was lifted; demand from wartime levels collapsed; tenant farmers cut wages and hired fewer hands

Question 48

What caused the farming bankruptcies of the 1820s?

Answer 48

Price fluctuations; landowners who had borrowed large sums for enclosure, drainage and new buildings found themselves unable to repay debts when agricultural prices stayed low

Question 49

Was agricultural progress uniform across Britain?

Answer 49

No – it was very uneven. Innovations developed in one region could take years or decades to spread elsewhere

Question 50

Who invented the threshing machine and when?

Answer 50

Andrew Meikle in 1778 at Houston Mill, near Dunbar, East Lothian

Question 51

When did threshing machines come into general use?

Answer 51

The 1820s – nearly 50 years after invention, illustrating the slow spread of agricultural innovation

Question 52

What was the reaction of labourers to the spread of threshing machines?

Answer 52

Fearing for their jobs, they attacked and destroyed the machines

Question 53

What was the most popular method of crop rotation by the 1820s?

Answer 53

A variation of the Norfolk system, associated with Thomas Coke of Holkham Hall – alternating clover and turnips with barley and wheat to restore soil fertility and eliminate fallow periods

Question 54

HISTORIAN: What does Boyd Hilton argue about the free trade measures of the 1820s?

Answer 54

Hilton argues Huskisson and Robinson's work was 'largely a tidying-up operation' rather than a visionary programme – similar in nature to Peel's codification of criminal law: rationalising existing practice rather than revolutionary new thinking

Question 55

HISTORIAN: What does Williams and Ramsden argue about Britain's industrial supremacy after 1815?

Answer 55

Williams and Ramsden describe the period after Waterloo as unique – Britain's economic strength, naval power and empire gave her a global supremacy 'not approached before or since', best described as 'Pax Britannica' with industrial supremacy at its heart

Question 56

PRACTICE QUESTION PROMPT: 'Agricultural improvements played a crucial role in facilitating the expansion of industry and commerce by 1832.' Assess.

Answer 56

AGREE: Enclosure drove agricultural productivity, feeding a growing industrial workforce; surplus rural labour migrated to industrial towns; Huskisson's free trade measures stimulated trade. DISAGREE: Agricultural progress was patchy and regionally uneven; the Corn Laws actually harmed industrial interests by raising wages; agriculture entered a crisis after 1815. OVERALL: Some link between agricultural change and industrial growth but it was indirect and inconsistent