By K. Papadimitriou
This is a follow-up post on my previous one here and is based on the same source material. Please read it for a better background information for the current post. Thank you!
The British Empire stands as a monumental force in history, the biggest empire ever, an empire that in its apogee governed almost a quarter of world’s population and dominated nearly all oceans. During the 19th century the British Empire reaches its zenith, dominating global trade networks, with her maritime supremacy, the establishment of trading posts and her stranglehold on the trade of her colonies. Applying the economic policies of mercantilism, aimed to accumulate wealth and resources, seeking to maximize exports and minimize imports, enforcing trade monopolies and imposing tariffs to protect British manufacturers and industrial output.
At the heart of the British Empire’s expansion and endurance lay her remarkable ability to anticipate, create and adapt to commercial opportunities. Behind its huge economic expansion and global dominance, during the 19th century, rests the British commercial foresight. According to some evidence, as early as the beginning of the 17th century an English consul had been established in Moscow and succeeded in obtaining the right of a trade monopoly in Russia. Since the beginning of the 19th century the Chinese Empire had attracted the commercial interest of the British Empire, which was the first to realize the enormous prospects of this market. In 1833 the British government sought the accreditation of a diplomat in Canton, responsible for the trade between the two countries. After the Opium Wars with the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, the British achieved the opening of Chinese ports to British goods, low tariffs, and the cession of Hong Kong. Moreover, the construction of the Suez Canal in 1869, financed in part by British capital, revolutionized maritime trade routes, by reducing the time and cost of travel between Mediterranean ports and Asia. Similarly, by a convention between Britain and the Ottoman Empire, signed at Constantinople ten days before the meeting of the Berlin Conference (4 June 1878), British diplomacy succeeded in securing the possession and administration of Cyprus, adding an important post to control Suez Canal and the trade routes in Eastern Mediterranean.
Many aspects of the British foreign policy on the Eastern Question during the 19th century, and particularly the ongoing competition and rivalry with the Russian Empire could be seen in the light of British commercial and economic interests. British government and policymakers were well aware of the importance of naval power and commercial supremacy for the survival, preservation, and expansion of their empire. In 1866 the Professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and Chaplain of the House of Representatives Rev. Charles Brandon Boynton in his monograph entitled The Four Great Powers: England, France, Russia and America; Their Policy, Resources, and Probable Future, notes that the power of British Empire to maintain her rank among nations, depends upon her being able to supply the markets of the world with her fabrics and retain her position as the chief factor of world’s commerce. Boynton argues prophetically that the time is not distant when Great Britain will lose the control of every one of her principal colonies and she must rest upon the resources of her home empire, competing as she may with the rest of the world for the trade of her present colonies.
An illustrative example of the interplay between trade and politics, as well as British commercial foresight, could be drawn from David Urquhart’s book entitled England and Russia. In his work, the Scottish diplomat and politician presents, in an appendix of all places (and this is a must read on your part), an article drawn up by him in 1828 explaining the political and economic necessities for shifting British trade and tariff policy to serve British interests, giving an example of the trade in Greek olive oil produced in the, the occupied, Greek regions of the Ottoman Empire, and Russian tallow. According to his views the status of the British tariffs is favoring Russia and injuring the Ottoman Empire. By paying Russia several millions annually, Great Britain is in effect financing Russian military might and aggressiveness, while injuring the prosperity and degrading the power of its own empire.
</p style="text-align:>
Taking as an example the Greek olive oil and the Russian tallow, he claims that olive oil is almost unknown in Great Britain, although is widely used in other countries. While olive oil is the best material for light, machinery, dyeing, chemical treatment of wool and the principal ingredient in the manufacture of soap, England uses, instead of olive oil, tallow; an inferior substitute and more expensive, mainly due to tariff regulations and restrictions. Contrary to Great Britain, other countries, such as France, are importing much greater quantities of olive oil and by using it extensively they produce and export better quality products. Urquhart claims that the use of substitutes and especially of Russian tallow, instead of the Greek olive oil, results in many negative consequences and disadvantages. Apart from the fact that tallow is wholly inadequate to supply the demand without an excessive increase of price, Russia, the country which furnishes tallow, restricts by every means the importation of British products. On the other hand, the Ottoman Empire, where the high-quality Greek olive oil is produced, admits without any restriction the produce of England. Therefore, the British vessels return empty from Greece, and they go empty to Russia. Furthermore, the trade with the Ottoman Empire is carried on exclusively with British vessels, while the traffic with Russia is shared with Russian vessels, contributing to the development of the Russian merchant fleet.
</p style="text-align:>
According to Urquhart, the British tariff in Greek olive oil produced in the Ottoman Empire has excluded England from the soap trade, has induced her to use an inferior article in the preparation of her woolen manufactures, in dyeing, for machinery, and for light. Moreover, it has deprived Great Britain from indirect benefits, such as employment of her shipping, increased capital, and compensating demand, while she has transferred most important financial and commercial resources from Turkey, a country she has to defend, to Russia an empire she has to combat. Urquhart emphasizes on the excellent quality olive oil, naming the main areas of production, such as Peloponnese, Creta, Lesbos, and Ionian Islands, and he notes that the large production, as well as the existing prospects for its increase, can meet a notable increase in English demand, without a significant change of price. In any case, an increase of price would hurt mainly France and other countries that already supply olive oil and enjoy an advantage over Great Britain. He proposes a gradual change from tallow to olive oil, which will render Great Britain more competitive, by producing and exporting superior quality products, while, at the same time, transferring the most lucrative branch of Russian trade, from Russia to the Ottoman Empire.
The cultivation of olive trees and the production of olive oil have been integral to Greek culture for millennia. Urquhart was right, recognizing the extraordinary properties of olive oil for both culinary, domestic, manufacturing and commercial purposes, combined with the political and economic interests of his country. Today, Greece stands as one of the world’s leading producers of superior quality olive oil, making it a staple of Mediterranean cuisine and a coveted ingredient worldwide.
Despite its remarkable foresight and economic success, the British Empire faced many challenges from the emergence of rival powers, such as Germany and the United States, threatened British economic supremacy, and eventually declined. But the British commercial foresight shaped the course of global commerce and left a lasting legacy on the modern world. The lessons learned from the British Empire’s commercial foresight continue to resonate today’s interconnected global economy.
