Constitutional Monarchy

By the beginning of the XVIII century the conditions were ripe in Britain for the development of capitalism. The basic production of the country was still agricultural, but manufacture especially of textiles was wide-spread and prosperous. British markets extended all over the world and all aspects of production connected with shipping and foreign trade were expanding. Capital was accumulating in the country, and it was being invested in manufacture, commerce, agriculture and in direct colonial expansion.

The great wealth and power of England was in the hands of the landed aristocracy and the big financial bourgeoisie. These classes shared their power by means of the so-called two party system, whereby government alternated between the party of the Tories – representing landowning interests, and the party of the Whigs – representing the growing power of capital, both industrial and agricultural, the party which had carried through the Glorious revolution – the compromise of 1688.

Parliament in no sense represented the people and by the end of the century it did not even represent the growing numbers of smaller capitalist manufactures, since the new industrial towns were sometimes not represented at all. Since 1717 only 250 thousand could vote in England out of a population of about five million. People with an annual income of no less than 600 pounds in real estate or 200 pounds from trade and financial transactions were liable to vote. Elections were exceedingly corrupt. The voting was open, not secret, so landlord could see which way his tenants voted. In the towns, too, voters were controlled by their masters, who were usually the local bourgeoisie.

A place where most of the voters were controlled by one rich man was called a “pocket” borough. That is, the voters were in the rich man's pocket. A place where only a few people had the right to vote was called a “rotten” borough. Elections in rotten boroughs were easily controlled.

The 18^th century was the time of the agrarian revolution. By the middle of the century there was no more common land in England and there were no more yeomen. The peasants were driven off their lands. Many of the country dwellers whose main source of income had been weaving were now unable to supplement the meagre sums paid by the middlemen for their work by the food gained from common lands, and were forced to migrate to the new manufacturing towns and there formed the basis of the proletariat. The village communities broke up, the poor peasants either became a pauper or migrated to the towns. A numerous army of agricultural labourers was emerging. These proletarians in the countryside were ready to take up any job available. Capitalist farming based on exploitation of agricultural labourers was developing in England on an accelerated scale because of the growing demands of the expanding towns in agricultural produce. Free labour was also vitally important for the development of capitalism in industry. This process associated with many important technical inventions took place in the latter half of the 18-th century and is known as the Industrial Revolution.