PARLIAMENTARY COLBERTISM
4D. 169 ship-owners to protect themselves by insuring, and caused a
very rapid expansion of the underwriters’ business,
LO 4,
XV. CHANGES IN THE ORGANISATION AND DISTRIBUTION
OF INDUSTRY.
The foster-
ng of
ndustry
vag the
prime
bject of
sCcOnomic
policy
during the
vertod of
Whig As-
endancy.
225. The promotion of industry of every kind had be-
come the primary object which Parliament pursued in its
efforts to build up the wealth and power of England.
Sir Robert Walpole had aimed at recasting the tariff so that
she materials for our manufactures might be cheap; and the
rules for commercial intercourse, which were embodied in
sreaties, or laid down under the Navigation Acts, were
intended to secure a large sale for our goods. During the
period of Whig Ascendancy attention was concentrated on
this aspect of economic life, and no effort was spared to
make England the workshop of the extensive spheres where
her influence and her friendship availed to keep the markets
open to our manufactures.
wd this For this line of conduct there was much to be said.
tefemsible. Labour is, to a very large extent, the active element in the
increase of wealth?; and the more it is brought into play,
the more the other sides of economic life will prosper. In-
dustrial development furnished commodities with which to
carry on trade, and thus gave employment to shipping and
seamen; it provided the means of procuring such foreign
products as were most required; it gave occupation to a
large population, and thus brought about a demand for food,
and encouraged agriculture? There seemed therefore to be
good grounds for attempting to foster the growth of in-
dustrial activity, not merely through the natural influence
of expanding commerce, but by the artificial stimulus of
bounties as well, ’
Merchants’ Petition (1742), tb. xu. 446, 753; Commercial Losses (Feb. 6, 1778), +b.
1x. 709, also xx, 1144. Also on the alarm caused by Paul Jones and pirates on
our coasts, tb. xxi. 486; Difficulties with Holland, £5. 963.
1 Petty, Treatise, 49. See above, p. 383.
8 Compare Sir J. Steuart, Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy,
in Works. 1. 85. 45. 153. See pn. 704 n. 1. below.
