The Industrial Revolution

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1027928145

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-159926

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Cunningham, William http://d-nb.info/gnd/128907487

Title:: The Industrial Revolution

Place of publication:: Cambridge

Publisher:: The University Press

Year of publication:: 1922

Scope:: xxii S., S. 404-886

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

LAISSEZ FAIRE IN COMMERCE 867 question of its continued applicability to English commerce is once fairly raised? The entire abandonment of national commercial regula- tion, either through Navigation Laws or by means of tariff, was an ideal which was hailed with enthusiasm by many writers at the close of the eighteenth century. Sir John Laissez Sinclair held very decided views on the subject. “It is BR unnecessary,” he wrote in advocating a general colonial g¥ i emancipation, “ to point out the advantages which Europe in ¢ 2 by general would receive were such an important alteration to i take place in the situation and circumstances of the most in England fertile and valuable provinces which the world contains. My breast glows at the idea that a time may possibly soon arrive when the ships of Denmark, of Sweden, and of Russia, of Holland, of Austria, of France itself, and of Great Britain shall no longer be debarred from sailing to the coasts of Chili and of Peru, or be precluded by any proud monopolist from exchanging the commodities of Europe for the riches of America; and when every state, in proportion to the fertility of its soil, and to the industry of its inhabitants, may be certain of procuring all the necessaries and the conveniences of life. With such a new and extensive field opened to the exertions of mankind, what discoveries might not be expected, what talents might not break forth, to what a height would not every art and science be carried ? The mind of a philan- thropist need not be overpowered with the magnitude and importance of the ideas which present themselves to his view, when he can figure, for a moment, mankind united together by mutual interest, and bound by the ties of commercial intercourse to promote the general happiness of the species.” It seemed to many people, however, that the best chance of realising this ideal was in a new country, where there was less respect for a traditional policy or for vested interests, and many economists looked hopefully to the United States nl in to be the pioneer of Free Trade. Jefferson, who was much influenced by French writers, expressed himself decidedly on i Mr Chamberlain's speech on May 15, 1903, marks an epoch, as it recognised ‘he necessity of bringing our economic policy into accord with Imperial ideas. 1 Sinclair's History of the Public Revenue, m. 105. 559

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