A history of England

by Charles Oman

Along the new roads and canals rolled a vastly increased volume of trade. The great discovery of the last reign, that iron might be smelted with coal, made Northern England, where coal and iron lie side by side, a great manufacturing district instead of a thinly peopled range of moors, and before the century was out Yorkshire and Lancashire had become the most important industrial centres in the realm.

Mechanical inventions.

A few years after the expansion of the iron industry came the growth of textile manufactures, fostered by the new discoveries made by Watt and Arkwright. The former, a Glasgow instrument-maker, began the application of steam to the setting of machinery in motion. The latter, a barber at Bolton, perfected the details of that machinery, and showed that it was possible to do quickly and accurately with iron what had hitherto been done slowly and more clumsily with human fingers. Where previously the spinner and weaver co-operated with the precarious motive-power of running water, the new mills, working by steam and able to establish themselves wherever coal was to be found, made their appearance. Thus the price of production was enormously lessened, and English woven goods became able to underbid any others in the markets of the world. For as yet no other nation had learnt the use of steam and machinery, and England had a monopoly of the new inventions. Our linen, woollen, and cotton manufactures were increasing with an astounding rapidity, and wealth and population mounted up by leaps and bounds. It is true that the new factory system was to lead to many social troubles and miseries. In the haste to grow rich, the mill-owners took little thought of the bodily or moral welfare of their workmen. In the new centres of population the lower classes were crowded together in narrow and unhealthy streets, forced to work too many hours a day, and grievously stinted in their wages as competition grew fierce. But these evils were only beginning to develop, while the rush of wealth produced in the new industries was apparent at once.

Improved agriculture.

Moreover, the growth of manufactures had stimulated other sources of prosperity. The increased population called for a larger food-supply, and therefore forced agriculture to develop. Waste and moor were everywhere being ploughed up, to raise corn for the new thousands who annually swelled our ranks. It is said that more new ground was taken into cultivation in the years between 1760 and 1780 than in the whole century which preceded them. Thus the landholding classes shared in the prosperity of the manufacturers. Nor was it only in the quantity of new corn-bearing land that progress was seen; the older acres also were cultivated with improved methods, and brought forth double their former produce.

Growth of wealth.

The growth of manufactures and the development of agriculture were enough in themselves to account for the marvellous ease with which England bore the burdens imposed upon her by the American war. So greatly was the national wealth increased, that losses which had seemed ruinous at the time were forgotten in ten years. The £120,000,000 of debt incurred in the struggle were no longer a nightmare to Chancellors of the Exchequer; it became evident that the country had suffered no incurable wound in the disastrous struggle with America, France, and Spain.

Pitt's financial and commercial policy.

Pitt, then, fell upon a fortunate time when he took office in December, 1783. But we must not deprive him of the full credit of restoring the prosperity of English finance. It is a great title to praise that he saw the bright side of things when other men were hopeless. And it must be remembered that his own enlightened conduct of affairs had much to do with the improved condition of the country. For he was far ahead of his contemporaries in his knowledge of finance and political economy. First of all English statesmen, he had studied the laws of wealth and the workings of international commerce. He had found an inspiration in Adam Smith's celebrated book, the "Wealth of Nations," published in 1776, and from it had convinced himself that Free Trade was the true policy of England, and that the old and narrow commercial policy of restriction and Protection was radically unsound. In all his legislation he bore this principle in mind, and the realm profited thereby to no small extent.