Merchants, Money, and Mischief the British in Mexico, 1821-1862

1979 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara A. Tenenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Political Life ◽  
British Imperialism ◽  
Official Policy ◽  
Laissez Faire

Scholars have frequently argued about the nature and extent of British participation in the economic and political life of the countries which emerged during the nineteenth century. Historians who seek to disprove general or specific theses concerning British imperialism in the nineteenth century, often focus their discussions on the doctrines of “Free Trade” and “Laissez-Faire” and their impact on the formulation and implementation of British official policy. They note that Britain refused any opportunity to attain formal special status and demanded that it have onlyequalopportunities for trade.

Informal Empire? An Exploration in the History of Anglo-Argentine Relations, 1810–1914

1992 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
British Imperialism ◽  
Water Line ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
Political Function ◽  
Informal Empire ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Way

Introduction: the genesis of ‘informal empire’In 1953 John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson published an article entitled ‘The Imperialism of Free Trade’, which has since become a landmark in the study of nineteenth-century British imperialism. Seeking to overturn long-cherished notions of a mid-Victorian ‘indifference’ and a late-Victorian ‘enthusiasm’ for empire, it proposed a basic continuity of policy whereby British industrialisation caused an ever-extending and intensifying development of overseas regions for both strategic and economic purposes. Hence the suggestion of a working definition of imperialism as ‘the sufficient political function of this process of integrating new regions into the expanding economy’. In switching the focus of a definition of imperialism from the way in which Britain was able to assert her superiority over weaker, subordinate nations to the impetus and motivation behind such expansion, traditional conceptions of empire were suddenly shattered. Indeed, as Robinson and Gallagher maintained, ‘The conventional interpretation of the nineteenth century empire continues to rest on the study of formal empire alone, which is rather like judging the size and character of icebergs solely from the parts above the water-line’.2The whole framework of reference for a study of British imperialism was being recast, the revised assumption being that the empire of formal dominion, which can loosely be defined as control through annexation and constitutional subordination, is not comprehensible in isolation. Rather, the assertion of British paramountcy, which for Robinson and Gallagher lies close to the very heart of imperialism, was achieved by informal means if possible, or by formal annexation when this was deemed necessary.

scholarly journals Empire and Social Reform: British Liberals and the “Civilizing Mission” in the Sugar Colonies, 1868–1874

1995 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Patterson Smith
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Forward Movement ◽  
British Imperialism ◽  
Civilizing Mission ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Laissez Faire ◽  
Colonial Office

In contrast to the spirit of laissez-faire, the Colonial Office under Gladstone's first government served as a large-scale social engineering agency concerned with the cautious restructuring of volatile societies in the sugar-producing colonies of the West Indies and the Indian Ocean. From the perspective of the Colonial Office civilizing the barbarian made him more governable. There is a revealing paradox in the fact that so much of what Victorian Liberals did in the name of civilizing benighted natives involved active government initiatives in imperial settings. Under the banner of “peace, retrenchment, and reform” nineteenth-century British Liberals advocated cost-cutting and laissez-faire at home and non-expansion abroad. Liberal leaders' public statements in this vein helped set the historiographical stereotype of supposed Gladstonian Liberal “little Englandism” versus a dramatic imperial policy shift toward “forward movement” in the Disraelian Conservative era. Scholarship over the last thirty years has refuted this older view and has stressed the continuity of British imperialism throughout the nineteenth century. However, a careful examination of the details of policy reveals that from 1868–74 the Liberals not only valued the Empire, but were willing to sacrifice their own theories of limited government in order to strengthen the British hold—even on their bankrupt sugar colonies in the Caribbean and Indian oceans. Initiatives in colonial religion, education, health, justice, and labor regulation demonstrate a surprising Liberal bent toward government activism in the non-white Empire. Moreover, the self-conscious and energetic manipulation of such a wide range of policy tools reveals a serious Liberal commitment to empire, which further belies the old notion that from 1868–74, “little Englandism” reached its high point.

‘Laissez-faire’ or Active Intervention? The Nature of the British and Foreign Bible Society's Patronage of the Translation of the Chinese Union Versions

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
GEORGE KAM WAH MAK
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Financial Support ◽  
Controlling Factor ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Active Intervention ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
Ideological Influence ◽  
Laissez Faire

AbstractThis paper investigates the nature of the British and Foreign Bible Society's (BFBS) patronage of the translation of the Chinese Union Versions (CUVs), the largest Chinese Protestant Bible translation project initiated by the western Protestant churches in the nineteenth century. Drawing on André Lefevere's concept of patronage, it delves into how the BFBS served as a controlling factor of the translation of the CUV by examining the BFBS's financial support to the translation project, conferment of honorary titles to the translators and ideological influence on the translators’ choice of Greek text as the basis for the CUVs New Testament translation.

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