The impact of imperial trade

Although there is no space in this article to cite detailed data, a more positive assessment of the impact of trade and colonies on British development can, however, be made.

Revenue from slavery and the slave trade filtered back into the British economy in indirect ways, with bankers, insurance specialists and country gentlemen all participating as active investors. Some historians think that the profits of slavery and the slave trade, as a proportion of national income, were impressive.

British manufacturing production, it has been argued, received the additional stimulus of a large overseas trading bowl, that induced producers to increase productivity and introduce new technologies to meet this additional demand.

Modern studies have shown that the net drain to the British economy from protecting the British Caribbean colonies, or from participating in the East India trade, have been exaggerated. There can be little doubt that trade and empire gave a significant boost to the proliferation and sophistication of financial services, and that this was of considerable benefit to the long-term development of the British economy.

British hegemony in empire and trade by 1815 was such that Britannia did rule the waves......

No historian would argue that trade and empire had a minimal impact on emerging British industrialisation; the question is, rather, exactly how important was that impact?

The current consensus is that trade and empire were significant for British economic growth in the Hanoverian period, even if they were not decisively important. British hegemony in empire and trade by 1815 was such that Britannia did rule the waves; but this would not have been achieved without the strong support provided by the 'military-fiscal' state and the Royal Navy.

The expansion of British imperial endeavours was accompanied by many years of warfare: over half of the 18th century saw the British at war, principally against France.

The ability of the British government to raise taxes and loans to support aggressive military policies by Hanoverian governments, and the superiority of the Royal Navy over other European navies, both played a large part in creating the conditions through which trade and empire could flourish.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/trade_empire_01.shtml)