HOW SUCCESSFUL WAS PITT’S GOVERNMENT ?

1783 Pitt came to power 1783 when the Fox-North coalition was defeated in Parliament over their North India Bill. George III asked Pitt to become PM and form a government. Pitt had no majority in Parliament (Commons) but knew that the Whigs were unpopular and he would need to bide his time before the next election Initially Pitt’s government experienced a difficult time losing several votes in the Commons, but he refused to resign and had the backing of the King. The election of later in the year gave him the majority he needed Pitt faced a massive government debt of £250,000,000 and had become PM just at the time Britain had lost all the American colonies: “A sight to make surrounding nations stare.. A Kingdom trusted to a schoolboy’s care”

Pitt’s Financial Reforms Defeat I the American Wars had left Britain with a huge national debt of £250,000,000 at a time when annual government revenue was only £25,000,000

How did Pitt solve this? A)The sinking fund a) He set up the ‘sinking fund’ – he stashed away significant sums of national income and invested them in stocks/shares in the hope that the interest accrued would eventually overtake the national debt – a partial success as by 1793 Pitt had reduced the national debt by £10,000,000

B)Improved efficiency and honesty with public money Pitt refused to take any salary or expenses for his own role He also stopped the common M.P’s practice of using Parliamentary postage to fund outside business interests and reduced the expenses of Parliament

c)Taxation and Duties Pitt reduced duties on imports to reduce smuggling and therefore increase government revenue. For instance duty on tea before Pitt was 116%. Pitt reduced it to 12% virtually ending tea smuggling and increasing government revenues Pitt taxed a range of luxury items such as racehorses and domestic servants before he increased purchase tax on more common everyday items Pitt introduced ‘Window Tax’ on properties with more than 5 windows In 1797 Pitt introduced income tax for the first time to pay for the wars with France

D)Trade Treaties Pitt signed a free trade treaty with France in 1786 which allowed for the free movement of people between the 2 countries (no passports) and much freer trade Ships from both countries allowed to dock and unload cargoes without duties and duties on goods carried significant reduced Significant benefit to Britain’s new manufacturers (middle class) as it opened up a new market to them. Less beneficial to France who had yet to industrialise to anything like the extent

Pitt and Parliamentary Reform Pitt introduced a very moderate Reform Bill in 1785 which proposed to abolish 36 rotten boroughs and transfer the MPs to the new industrial areas – the Bill was heavily defeated and Parliament remained unreformed

Pitt and the Slave Trade British business benefitted hugely from the slave trade Pitt (a school friend of the anti slavery campaigner William Wilberforce) was able to introduce a law regulating the treatment of the slaves on ‘the middle passage’ Two subsequent attempts supported by Pitt proposed by Wilberforce to abolish the slave trade completely were heavily defeated

Pitt and Catholic Rights In 1791 Pitt successfully passed a law giving Roman Catholics the right to practice their own religion free from harassment – civil rights for Catholics however were still 39 years away!

Pitt and the Regency Much of Pitt’s success was down to the way in which he worked successfully with George III However in 1788 the first signs of George III’s madness emerged when he got out of his Royal carriage and shook hands with a tree thinking it was the King of Prussia The Whigs proposed that the Prince of Wales should rule as Regent – Fox was especially close to the Prince of Wales (the future George IV) Fortunately George III recovered and the issue passed… for now

Naval Reforms Pitt appointed Admiral Lord Howe as First Lord of the Admiralty in 1783 which instructions to reform the Royal Navy Under Lord Howe the navy became stronger and more efficient with conditions improving at the royal dockyards and within the navy itself. Within 10 days Britain had a powerful and strong Royal Navy – proved very important in later wars and in empire building

Pitt and India British India was effectively ruled very corruptly and harshly by a single British company – ‘The British East India Company’ In 1784 Pitt introduced a law to monitor the companies behaviour and activities It wasn’t until the Indian Mutiny of 1857 that the British government was forced to takeover direct control

War with France In 1789 the French Revolution broke out spreading revolutionary and radical ideas across Europe By 1793 Britain was at war with revolutionary France Up to this point many historians regard Pitt’s first administration as a qualified success, but the revolutionary wars changed everything