Free Trade, Free Peoples
Oldham’s firebrand MP William Cobbett rips into the the City of London for blocking economic and political progress in India.
1813
King George III 1760-1820
Oldham’s firebrand MP William Cobbett rips into the the City of London for blocking economic and political progress in India.
1813
King George III 1760-1820
In 1813, the East India Company held a Government-sponsored monopoly over all trade between London and her colonies, but a history of scandals and mismanagement led to calls for free trade. The City of London objected strongly in a Commons debate in January 1813, and William Cobbett MP could hardly believe his ears.
abridged
SIR William Curtis,* during this debate, expressed his fears that a free trade to India might cause the introduction of political freedom. “If a free trade to India were once allowed, among other exports, they would probably soon have a variety of politicians, who would use their best endeavours to give the Hindus a conception of the Rights of Man.” A most alarming thought, to be sure! His wishes, however, will not be accomplished, I believe; and he may yet live long enough to see men claiming and asserting their rights all over the world. But what a sentiment this is from an Englishman!*
Commerce has, by many writers, been applauded for having produced an extension of knowledge and freedom; but, this man objects to it in that account; he fears that opening of trade may tend to the enlarging of the mind of man; he is afraid that a free intercourse would break the chains of a people! Let us hope, that there are very few assemblages of men in the world where such a sentiment would not have been received with a unanimous exclamation of horror.
abridged
William Curtis (1752-1829) was MP for the City of London for twenty-eight years, an Alderman of the City of London, and (so we are told) a drinking-companion of the Prince Regent. Curtis is credited with coining the phrase ‘the three Rs’ to refer to reading, writing and arithmetic. His own origins were humble enough: his father made his fortune manufacturing tack, that is, sea-biscuits.
Six years earlier, London had criminalised the slave trade across the British Empire, a breakthrough moment in civil rights worldwide. Some people were disappointingly slow to put aside prejudice towards peoples and races outside western Europe, but it is uplifting to see that by 1813 such prejudice was so rare that Cobbett could regard it as thoroughly un-English.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why was Sir Henry opposed to free trade with India?
Because Indians might starting thinking for themselves.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Sir Henry opposed free trade with India. He said Indians would demand more rights.