“Poor and backward” or “Wealthy and developing”: Which of these descriptors most accurately portrays
Uploaded by alaine4488 on Mar 09, 2004
“Poor and backward” or “Wealthy and developing”: Which of these descriptors most accurately portrays Britain in 1750?
Britain in 1750 could be described as either, “poor and backward” or “wealthy and developing” as there are any number of points to support each side of the argument. To set the scene of Britain in 1750, the population was approximately 6 ¼ million. The South East and London were the most densely populated with London alone having a population of 675,000 in all 15000 parishes, and in all “15% of the total population lived in urban areas” (E.J. Evans). The ports and harbours were growing rapidly especially Liverpool, Glasgow and Bristol, and even the hinterland (regions near these ports) experienced change and growth. For example, there was change in transport, the improvement of goods roads and trading links, which meant that after 1750 some regions were growing more rapidly than others (e.g. Hull due to the imports needed for shipbuilding from Europe). The South East and East Anglia remained the most populated areas because they were at the centre of the woollen cloth industry and agriculture and wear near to the continent for importing and exporting goods. The Bank of England had been founded in 1697 and banks were beginning to appear around the country, new commodities had been introduced like coffee and cocoa in the 1680’s, there was the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666, and a gradual evolution of economic activity meant that there were new crops and rotations in agriculture. As you can see, Britain was already developing before 1750 and the average income was £12 p.a. compared favourably with Britain’s European counterparts.
By comparison to other countries in the early 18th century England was probably the richest country in the world in 1700 and relatively an extremely advanced country, with London possibly being the largest city in the world. Britain’s Empire and commerce had extended into the Americas, Asia and Africa and England produced enough to have an export surplus of grain. Englishmen were by far “better clothed, fed and housed than their continental counterparts” (Daniel Defoe). There was small scale manufacturing in the countryside and cottages of agricultural labourers, as agriculture and manufacturing were not separate as today. Less than half of Britain’s labour force were employed in agriculture, compared to 75% of a “backward” country thus proving that Britain’s economy before 1760 was relatively...