Here, we are interested in the sixty years between the British Empire’s loss of its American colonies in 1780s, to the Chartist Movement in the 1830s-1840s.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which ruled over the rest of this polity, was a constitutional monarchy. Governors, Proconsuls, and Viceroys were tasked with translating directives from London into forms that were suited conditions in the colonies.
[1]
No population estimates for the entire empire could be found specifically for this period, but according to contemporary sources it reached a population of 284,110,693 in the 1870s.
[2]
[1]: (Burroughs 1999) Peter Burroughs. Imperial institutions and the Government of Empire. Andrew Porter. ed. 1999. The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume III: The Nineteenth Century. Oxford University Press. Oxford.
[2]: (Bartholomew 1877, v) John Bartholomew. 1877. Atlas of the British empire throughout the world. George Philip and Son. London.
| Year Range | British Empire II (gb_british_emp_2) was in: |
|---|---|
| (1780 CE 1840 CE) | Deccan |
From the loss of American colonies to the instability of the 1830s - 1840s (the Chartist Movement)
British Civil Service, colonial bureaucracies e.g. Indian Civil Service. In Britain, expanding system of full-time salaried bureaucrats; in India, a system of (mostly non-native) salaried officials known as the Indian Civil Service, introduced in 1858.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel engineered many bridges.
"The fact is, that the paper currency of the country cannot be on a perfectly sound footing until the issue of notes, whether by joint stock banks or private individuals, be suppressed. ... A paper currency is not in a sound or wholesome state, unless, 1st, means be taken to insure that each particular note or parcel of such currency be paid immediately on demand; and unless, 2nd, the whole currency vary in amount and value exactly as a metallic currency would do were the paper currency withdrawn and coins substituted in its stead. The last condition is quite as indispensable to the existence of a well-established currency as the former; and it is one that cannot be fuilly realized otherwise than by confining the issue of paper to a single source. It is easy to see that were paper issued only by the Bank of England, or some one source in London, and then only in exchange for bullion, the currency would be in its most perfect state, and would fluctuate exactly as it would do were it wholly metallic. But at present the currency is supplied by hundreds of individuals and associations, all actuated by diferent and frequently conflicting views and interests." [1]
[1]: (McCulloch 1847, 37) J R McCulloch. 1847. A Descriptive and Statistical Account of the British Empire. Third Edition. Volume II. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. London.
"The Coinage of the British Empire from the Earliest Period to the Present Time" Henry Noel Humphreys (1861). "Before the early nineteenth century the Royal Mint’s role was largely domestic. Britain’s North American colonies had gained the right to issue their own coinage ... while in South Asia the East India Company had been allowed since the late seventeeth century to ’purchase’ permission from local Indian rulers to reproduce coins that followed India as opposed to English conventions. For the Mint itself the eighteenth century was a period of relative stagnation: British silver and copper coinage was in a poor condition and was in short supply. ... The end of the Napoleonic wars, however, was followed by currency reform and in 1816-17 recoinage in Britain. In 1818 private coins were made illegal. ... The installation of Boulton’s steam-powered machinery, coupled with a French invention, the ’reducing machine’, which reproduced original coin designs by machine rather than by hand engraving, enabled for the first time the mass production of high-quality and homogenous copper coins and transformed the Mint itself into an ’industrial concern’. These changes coincided with the growth of a ’second’ British Empire and the Mint began producing more coins for overseas dependenies." [1]
[1]: (Stockwell 2018, 45-46) Sarah Stockwell. 2018. The British End of the British Empire. Cambridge University PRess. Cambridge.
"Before the early nineteenth century the Royal Mint’s role was largely domestic. Britain’s North American colonies had gained the right to issue their own coinage ... while in South Asia the East India Company had been allowed since the late seventeeth century to ’purchase’ permission from local Indian rulers to reproduce coins that followed India as opposed to English conventions." [1] "domestic British coin became increasingly an ’imperial currency’, circulating throughout much of the Empire. ... in the course of the nineteeth century, the Mint began producing a variety of dedicated colonial as well as other foreign coinages, designated ’private’ by the Mint, and paid for by the overseas customers. From 1883 the Treasury encouraged all colonies to obtain their local currencies from the Mint." [2]
[1]: (Stockwell 2018, 45-46) Sarah Stockwell. 2018. The British End of the British Empire. Cambridge University PRess. Cambridge.
[2]: (Stockwell 2018, 46) Sarah Stockwell. 2018. The British End of the British Empire. Cambridge University PRess. Cambridge.
This reference concerns possessions in South Africa: "...by horses and, in the ’twenties, by postcarts: a weekly postal service was set up in 1834. In 1852 there was a daily service from Cape Town to Paarl and Stellenbosh, thrice weekly to Grahamstown and twice weekly to the Karoo. The postcart also conveyed passengers. Following the issue of the famous three-cornered Capes in 1853, a penny post was established in limited areas in 1860 and four years later it was possible to extend it to the whole Colony. But, despite better roads, the ox-waggon remained the commercial vehicle and was still in use a century later." [1]
[1]: (? 1963, 795) ? in Eric A Walker. ed. 1963. The Cambridge History of the British Empire. Volume III. South Africa, Rhodesia and The High Commission Territories. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
This reference concerns possessions in South Africa: "...by horses and, in the ’twenties, by postcarts: a weekly postal service was set up in 1834. In 1852 there was a daily service from Cape Town to Paarl and Stellenbosh, thrice weekly to Grahamstown and twice weekly to the Karoo. The postcart also conveyed passengers. Following the issue of the famous three-cornered Capes in 1853, a penny post was established in limited areas in 1860 and four years later it was possible to extend it to the whole Colony. But, despite better roads, the ox-waggon remained the commercial vehicle and was still in use a century later." [1]
[1]: (? 1963, 795) ? in Eric A Walker. ed. 1963. The Cambridge History of the British Empire. Volume III. South Africa, Rhodesia and The High Commission Territories. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
This reference concerns possessions in South Africa: "...by horses and, in the ’twenties, by postcarts: a weekly postal service was set up in 1834. In 1852 there was a daily service from Cape Town to Paarl and Stellenbosh, thrice weekly to Grahamstown and twice weekly to the Karoo. The postcart also conveyed passengers. Following the issue of the famous three-cornered Capes in 1853, a penny post was established in limited areas in 1860 and four years later it was possible to extend it to the whole Colony. But, despite better roads, the ox-waggon remained the commercial vehicle and was still in use a century later." [1]
[1]: (? 1963, 795) ? in Eric A Walker. ed. 1963. The Cambridge History of the British Empire. Volume III. South Africa, Rhodesia and The High Commission Territories. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
Used by indigenous forces under British command?