William Pitt Research Paper
HOW FAR DID PITT’S POLICIES SUCCESSFULLY MEET BRITAIN’S ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL REQUIREMENT BETWEEN 1783 AND 1793?
William Pitt the younger became prime minister of Britain in 1783. Britain was in a political crisis having just lost the American war of independence and was also in a huge debt of approximately £242million. Being in the midst of the political and economic turmoil, Pitt introduced several policies to be on top of things and in this essay I am going to assess the success of these policies in meeting Britain’s need between 1783-93.
The 1770’s witnessed a fall in the real value of Britain’s industrial and commercial production. At the same time the national debt rose by 91% to about £242million and the value of exports fell …show more content…
This was a clever idea because if he taxed the poor he risked the danger of provoking a revolution which would have added to Britain’s troubles. Pitt basically introduced new taxes for the benefit of getting the government more revenue which would only have been efficient if the taxes only targeted the wealthier classes. The types of products he taxed were luxuries like hair powder, horses, gold/silver and products only the rich could afford. This policy was successful as it contributed to the fall in debt to £170milion by 1792. However it may have caused the increase in black market trade as many people brought the luxuries like hair powder into Britain to sell to the rich illegally so they could avoid paying the …show more content…
Pitt intended to reduce the attractiveness and profitability of smuggling through a reduction in the duties on those goods, which were mostly illegally imported to Britain. The Commutation Act of 1784 reduced the import duty on tea, by 94%, followed by a reduction of wine, spirits and tobacco. This discouraged much of the smuggling as there was less of an incentive to smuggle with such a low taxation. In addition, the Hovering Act gave officials the right to search cargo vessels which meant that less people would take the risk to try to bring goods into Britain illegally and more people would be paying taxes of goods brought into Britain. This was extremely successful in the long term as it resulted in rising value of food and raw material imports doubling to £20million between 1783-90, and exports rising from £12.5million to
William Pitt the younger became prime minister of Britain in 1783. Britain was in a political crisis having just lost the American war of independence and was also in a huge debt of approximately £242million. Being in the midst of the political and economic turmoil, Pitt introduced several policies to be on top of things and in this essay I am going to assess the success of these policies in meeting Britain’s need between 1783-93.
The 1770’s witnessed a fall in the real value of Britain’s industrial and commercial production. At the same time the national debt rose by 91% to about £242million and the value of exports fell …show more content…
This was a clever idea because if he taxed the poor he risked the danger of provoking a revolution which would have added to Britain’s troubles. Pitt basically introduced new taxes for the benefit of getting the government more revenue which would only have been efficient if the taxes only targeted the wealthier classes. The types of products he taxed were luxuries like hair powder, horses, gold/silver and products only the rich could afford. This policy was successful as it contributed to the fall in debt to £170milion by 1792. However it may have caused the increase in black market trade as many people brought the luxuries like hair powder into Britain to sell to the rich illegally so they could avoid paying the …show more content…
Pitt intended to reduce the attractiveness and profitability of smuggling through a reduction in the duties on those goods, which were mostly illegally imported to Britain. The Commutation Act of 1784 reduced the import duty on tea, by 94%, followed by a reduction of wine, spirits and tobacco. This discouraged much of the smuggling as there was less of an incentive to smuggle with such a low taxation. In addition, the Hovering Act gave officials the right to search cargo vessels which meant that less people would take the risk to try to bring goods into Britain illegally and more people would be paying taxes of goods brought into Britain. This was extremely successful in the long term as it resulted in rising value of food and raw material imports doubling to £20million between 1783-90, and exports rising from £12.5million to