The 1870s: Foreign Policy and Economic Slump

First Gladstone Administration 1868-1874

Second Disraeli Administration 1874-1880

Foreign Policy

• The Crimean War 1853-1856
• The Indian Mutiny 1857
• The Suez Canal 1869
• The German Empire 1871

Disraeli's Foreign Policy

• Purchase share of Suez Canal 1876
• Queen Empress of India 1876

"The Great Depression" 1870-1900

• Falling agricultural prices
• Foreign mfg. competition
• Slowing return on investment
• 1890s--unemployment/bankruptcies

The Workshop of the World, 1850-1870

Industrial Production

• Textiles
• Iron
• Coal

Transportation

Railways (i.e. railroads)

Invisible Exports

• shipping profits
• foreign investments
• financial services
  • City of London

   

Agriculture

"The Great Depression" 1873-1900

Agricultural Prices

• Railroads
• Ukraine
• Iowa

Who got hurt?

• Landowners in agriculture
• Church of England clergy
• Tenant farmers
• Agricultural laborers

Urban wage-earners

• Falling food prices
• Rising real wages

Conservative party response?

• Disraeli: no new corn laws

Second Industrial Revolution

• Electrical and Chemical Industries
• Mass Production/Consumer Goods
• Large Firms
• Consumer Marketing

Thomas Beecham

J. J. Sainsbury

1900

• United States
• Germany
• Great Britain

Britain's relative decline

Economics

• The advantages of backwardness
• Technical training

Social values

• Aristocratic attitudes
• Recruiting entrepreneurs

Nothing to explain?

• Wealthy vs. non-wealthy nations

Gladstone

• 1870 First Vatican Council
  • infallibility
• 1874 pamphlet
• 1876 The Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East

The Eastern Question

• 1877 Russo-Turkish War
• 1878 Congress of Berlin
  • Balance of power
  • Cyprus
  • "peace with honour"

General Election of 1880

What were the distinctive features of "the great depression" of the late nineteenth century in Britain?

How did it influence electoral politics?

Why did Britain fall behind the U.S. and Germany in overall output by 1900?