Huskisson’s Legacy
Samuel Sidney, a Victorian expert on Australian matters, explained how cutting tax and regulation on Britain’s global trade made everyone better off.
1855
King George IV 1820-1830 to Queen Victoria 1837-1901
Samuel Sidney, a Victorian expert on Australian matters, explained how cutting tax and regulation on Britain’s global trade made everyone better off.
1855
King George IV 1820-1830 to Queen Victoria 1837-1901
Writing for ‘Household Words,’ Samuel Sidney, a rising authority on Australia, was full of praise for William Huskisson MP and his then-unfashionable free trade policies. Sidney believed that by adding new trade partners far beyond Europe, British business had raised living standards, cut prices and created jobs for millions worldwide.
AUSTRALIA was the great woollen revolutionist. German superseded Spanish wool, and Australian has superseded German to a great extent. The fine wool of Spain often cost ten shillings a-pound; we now obtain an enormous supply of fine wool at from one shilling and sixpence to two shillings per pound.*
In eighteen hundred and fifteen, the whole importation, under the discouragement of a heavy duty of foreign wool, was under fourteen million pounds weight, of which about seven million pounds came from Spain, three millions from Germany, and three millions from the rest of Europe.
In eighteen hundred and forty, the total imports (after Huskisson's reduction of duties, in eighteen hundred and twenty-five) had reached fifty million pounds;** in eighteen hundred and forty-nine, after Sir Robert Peel's total abolition of duties on raw produce, wool importation rose to seventy-six million pounds, of which more than half came from Australia.***
* In today’s prices, a reduction from £33.40/lb to as little as £6.32/lb. See Measuring Worth.
* William Huskisson (1770-1830) was President of the Board of Trade, and later Colonial Secretary. He was killed at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway on 15th September, 1830, by George Stephenson’s famous ‘Rocket’.
* Robert Peel (1788-1850) was the Prime Minister who in 1846 pushed through The Repeal of the Corn Laws, a turning-point in British economic history.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
In the early 19th century, which two European countries were Britain’s main trade partners in wool?
Initially Spain, which was superseded by Germany.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Britain imported wool from Europe. William Huskisson lowered import duties in 1825. The volume greatly increased.