industrialisation and the people 1F

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  • Created by: yuppisaur
  • Created on: 12-05-19 16:31

British history Revision 

Introduction to the parties: 

Pitt protested that he was an independent MP, but he did belong to the regular ol’ Whig party. Fox, (his opposition in parliament) belonged to the opposition Whigs, they were more liberal and against the massive influence of the king, fox thought that the French wars and uprising against their monarchy was a good thing, this lost him a lot of support. (The Whigs that Pitt belonged to turned into the Tories later and that’s why historians sometimes call him a Tory, the opposition Whigs later become the regular Whigs, so they get called the Whigs by historians... idk why, perhaps it’s because it makes things a little easier to understand)  

 

William Pitt the younger: in power: 1783-1801 

Pitt was put into power by the king, (£30,000 worth of patronage) people thought his ministry wouldn’t last long because Fox had the majority, he stayed there for a long time and people saw him as a great reformer even though he only really improved the economy. First ministry called the ‘Mince-pie ministry’ because people didn’t think that it would last very long. 

 

Reform 

  • He passed the Indian act 1784, (after Fox failed to put through the India bill in 1783) this removed the exclusive rights given to the east India trading company. This removed some of the corruption there... But not all of it, the east India trading company still retained much of its financial influence in India 

  • Sinecures were a big deal. Pitt wanted to get rid of the corruption in the government that came from them and wanted to make government more efficient, either way he stopped appointing sinecures as the people who owned them died out, therefore no one was salty that their monarch-given job where they did nothing was taken away from them. 

  • He failed to get rid of rotten boroughs 

  • He didn’t help the poor during two great food crises: 1795-6 and 1800-01 

  • Whitbread proposed a minimum wage for the poor, Pitt dismissed this 

  • He just told the rich to eat less, to import more from abroad and for the poor people to eat less bread and more meat, which frustrated them because they couldn’t afford meat in the first place 

  • So overall, he wasn’t the best at reforming Britain, and shouldn’t technically be called a ‘new broom’ in terms of making the lives of the working classes any better, but that’s Tories for you... or Whigs???? Or independents?? Who knows really? 

 

Repression 

  • Pitt feared revolution, sparked by the French wars, he became more repressive. 

  • The September massacres in 1792 in France made the government worried about revolution in Britain. Pitts first act of repression came in May 1792 and he made ‘seditious writings’ illegal. 

  • In 1794 he suspended habeas corpus 

  • In 1795 he introduced the ‘treasonable practices act’ and the seditious meetings act, making it

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