The extent of capitalist development in Britain in the 19th century...?

The completion of the Industrial Revolution and the series of huge economic changes caused by the Industrial Revolution, especially the widespread use of machines and the great development of domestic and foreign railway construction, directly promoted the 1950s-- The rapid development of British industry in the 1960s. In the two decades from 1850 to 1870, the number of cotton textile factories in the UK increased from 1,932 to 2,483, and the number of wool textile factories increased from 1,998 to 2,579; the export volume of wool textiles also increased by 1.5 times. Coal production increased from 49.8 million tons to 112 million tons, pig iron production increased from 2.3 million tons to 6 million tons, and cotton consumption increased from 590 million pounds to 1.08 billion pounds. In 1870 steel production reached 220,000 tons. In addition, industrial technology also developed greatly during this period. For example, there were many blast furnaces with a height of 80 feet and a daily output of 450-550 tons of pig iron; the Bessemer steelmaking method (1856) and the Siemens-Martin steelmaking (1867) also appeared successively. In the shipbuilding industry, Britain was also the first to use steel instead of wood for shipbuilding, which gradually enabled machine-made iron ships to replace wooden sailing ships.

The period of British industrial upsurge from 1850 to 1870 was also the period when the rapid industrial development of the United States and Germany was catching up. But until the 1970s, Britain still ranked first in world industrial production and world trade. In terms of industry, it produced most of the industrial products needed by countries around the world. In terms of foreign trade, Britain and its colonies ranked first in the world's total trade. The proportion increased by nearly a quarter, almost equivalent to the sum of France, Germany and the United States. The tonnage of its merchant ships also ranks first in the world, approximately the same as that of France, Germany, the United States, the Netherlands, and Russia combined. This makes the United Kingdom a veritable "world factory."

In the mid-19th century, the reason why Britain became the world's factory was not only that Britain was the first to complete the industrial revolution, but more importantly, it was because Britain occupied extremely vast colonies around the world. Since the early 19th century, Britain has pursued a policy of colonial expansion on a large scale. By the 1970s, Britain had occupied the largest colony in the world, covering more than 22.5 million square kilometers and a population of 250 million. More than 10 million, nearly 100 times that of the mainland (240,000 km2). This provided an inexhaustible source of raw materials and a broad product sales market for the development of capitalism, and accelerated the development of British industrial level and industrial quality. By the early 1870s, Britain's industrial population accounted for 62.8% of the total population, making it the first industrial country in the world.

With the rapid development of industry and the enhancement of economic strength, the British industrial bourgeoisie gradually strengthened its own strength and achieved political dominance. Its main symbol is the implementation of free trade policy. As early as 1846, Britain had repealed the Corn Laws, and in 1849 it repealed the Navigation Regulations. With the rapid development of industry, after the 1950s, the bourgeoisie further demanded the implementation of free trade policies, the reduction of import taxes on grain and raw materials, and the abandonment of import restrictions and protective tariff systems by other European countries. Therefore, from 1860 to 1865, Britain signed treaties with France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, etc. From 1846 to 1848, the British Parliament abolished import taxes on more than 200 commodities, etc. Countries signed treaties of commerce, prompting these countries to lower import taxes on British goods. Therefore, free trade policy is actually a policy of economic aggression. It marks the realization of free trade.

In the 1850s and 1960s, the bourgeois Liberal Party was in power in the UK for a long time and implemented free trade policies in the economy. This was the main feature of British political life during this period and reflected the development of British industrial capital at that time. the development of socialism and the enhancement of political and economic strength. This situation is reflected in politics, which is the realization of "liberal" rule. At that time, the powerful industrial bourgeoisie controlled the vast majority of seats in the British Parliament and controlled the real power of the country. Under their auspices, bourgeois democratic politics was most fully reflected in Britain. At the same time, the government also allowed more democratic freedoms in political life, such as freedom of speech, publication, assembly, association, etc., and allowed foreign exiles to seek political asylum in the UK. Therefore, since 1849, both Ma and End lived in the UK and made London the seat of the General Committee of the First International (1864-1872). In addition, in 1858, restrictions on Jewish political rights were also lifted. "Liberal" rule is a manifestation of the great development of the British capitalist economy and the easing of domestic class contradictions.

2. Congressional Reform and Civil Service Reform in 1867:

In the Congressional Reform Movement in 1832, the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie won the victory and were able to join the state power. The majority of workers , the petty bourgeoisie and the peasants still do not have the right to vote or to be elected. Therefore, in the 1830s and 1840s, they launched a vigorous Chartist movement and tried to win the power of universal suffrage, but they failed in the end. After the 1950s, the broad masses of workers, the petty bourgeoisie and other strata became more actively involved in the struggle for congressional electoral reform led by bourgeois radicals. In 1865, the "National Reform League" was established under the leadership of bourgeois radical leaders Cobden and Bright. Since then, the struggle for parliamentary electoral reform has been vigorously launched throughout the UK.

In August 1866, the Liberal Party's John Russell cabinet proposed a reform bill to Congress. Although it only increased the number of voters by 400,000, it was still opposed and defeated by the majority of members of the House of Commons. This triggered strong protests from people everywhere. Protests involving more than 100,000 people took place in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and many other cities. Finally forced the Liberal cabinet to collapse. In July 1866, the Conservative Delby Cabinet came to power. The following year, the cabinet submitted a reform bill to Congress. After being passed by Congress, it was officially approved by Queen Victoria's Office of the Commissioner of Justice on August 15, 1867. This was the second parliamentary reform in British history. The Reform Act of 1867 realigned constituencies, removing forty-six declining towns from their seats in the House of Commons and transferring them to emerging industrial cities. The bill also lowers electoral qualification restrictions and expands the scope of voters. In cities, all landlords who pay poor relief and tenants who pay rent of more than ten pounds per year and live for at least one year have the right to vote. In rural areas, those who earn more than five pounds a year from private land or servants who pay twelve pounds rent also have the right to vote. In this way, the number of elected citizens was increased from the previous 1.35 million to 2.45 million. The majority of farmers, agricultural workers and miners still did not gain political rights in this reform. It is obvious that this reform is still far from the universal suffrage system that the working class strives for. However, it expanded the scope of voters and further consolidated the dominance of the industrial bourgeoisie.

Roughly around the time of the second national reform, Britain also carried out reforms to the civil service system.

Before this, there was serious confusion and fraud in the appointment of British officials. In the mid-19th century, liberals representing the interests of the industrial bourgeoisie began to put forward demands for reforms in the appointment of officials. After difficult struggles, the reforms were initially initiated in 1855. First, when appointing civil servants, candidates were recruited through examinations. way. In 1870, the Privy Council issued an order on the reform of the civil service system, stipulating that: except for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and certain senior civil servants, most civil servants are recruited through public examinations and competitions. Since then, this system has been continuously revised. In addition, a system for selecting civil servants through public examinations and competition was gradually formed. The reform of the civil service system has greatly improved the quality and efficiency of officials, ensured the stability and continuity of state-owned policies, and strengthened the rule of the industrial bourgeoisie.

In the 1870s, emerging capitalist countries such as the United States and Germany experienced leapfrog development in industrial production based on the extensive use of advanced science and technology. The United Kingdom, an old capitalist country, has gone through more than a hundred industrializations. The machinery and equipment are outdated. The capitalists are only interested in profit and are unwilling to give up these equipment. They spend huge sums of money to update the equipment. This seriously hinders the progress of industry and production. develop.

Second, the high profits from British foreign investment far exceed domestic investment, causing a large outflow of funds. Through capital export-mainly through usury, an extremely large rentier class has been formed in the UK. , reaching as many as one million before World War I (the total population of the United Kingdom at that time was 20 million). The Commonwealth people, who were known for their "professional spirit" in modern history, were gradually lost with the emergence of the rentier class. of his enterprising spirit of struggle. Large tracts of cultivated land were turned into hunting grounds and rich horse farms, and the service industry and non-production industries increased significantly, causing the decline of industry and agriculture.

Thirdly, in the process of foreign trade, British goods are increasingly unable to compete with high-quality and low-price goods from the United States, Germany and other countries. The free trade policy implemented by the UK for a long time has caused a large number of foreign goods to inflow, resulting in huge trade. In addition, the economic crisis of 1878--1879 caused a depression in the British market and the decline of agriculture. This directly affects the speed of industrial development.

All of this inevitably caused Britain to lose its industrial monopoly.

After the 1870s, in order to compensate for the loss of its industrial hegemony, the British ruling class went a step further. It stepped up its plunder of colonies and desperately opened up new sources of revenue and markets. In 1860, Britain owned 2.5 million square miles of colonies, which increased to 7.7 million square miles in 1880 and to more than 13 million square miles in 1914, accounting for approximately 3,550 square miles. One hundred thousand square kilometers. It occupies a quarter of the world's land area and half of the total colonies plundered by the imperialist powers. It is equivalent to more than 100 times the size of the British mainland (300,000 square kilometers); the colonial population is more than 393 million , nine times the population of the UK itself (46.5 million).

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Britain, like other capitalist countries, began to transition to the imperialist stage. Of course, the formation and development of British monopoly capitalism had its own characteristics. Because it occupies an extremely large colony, the British monopoly organization was first formed in the colonies. The De Biez Company, which emerged in the 1890s, monopolized the diamond and gold mining industry in South Africa. Since then, monopoly organizations have been established in metallurgy, chemistry, coal, shipbuilding, cement and other industrial sectors. Especially in emerging chemical, cement and other industrial sectors, monopoly organizations develop faster. By the beginning of the twentieth century, in 1902, there were seventy-five trusts and other types of monopolies in Britain.

The United Kingdom is a country with a very developed financial industry. In terms of banking and financial services, the degree of concentration and monopoly in the United Kingdom far exceeds that of Germany and the United States. In 1865, there were 250 joint-stock banks in the UK. By 1900, the remaining 98 banks were reduced to 61 in 1913, of which 21 banks accounted for 85% of the country's total deposits. In 1914, the five major banks in London, Midland Bank, Westminster Bank, Lloyds Bank, Barclays Bank and National District Bank, held 40% of the country's total bank deposits. Highly concentrated banks dominated not only the financial markets of Britain and its colonies, but also the financial markets of the entire world. The largest banks and large companies in the UK also infiltrate each other and combine with each other through the purchase of stocks, forming a small group of financial capitalists. They control the national economy and the political lifeline of the entire country. In this way, entering the twentieth century, Britain had become an imperialist country.

The colonies were the lifeline of British imperialism. It not only provided Britain with a market for dumped goods, a source of cheap labor and raw materials, but also provided a new venue for the export of capital. The British monopoly bourgeoisie exported most of its capital to the colonies. In 1850, British overseas investment was 200 million pounds, which increased to 1.4 billion pounds in 1875. In 1913, it soared to 4 billion pounds, equivalent to a quarter of the British national wealth, accounting for the total wealth of various imperialist countries. half of total foreign investment. More than half of them were sent to colonies and semi-colonies. As capital exports increased, the number of British bank branches in the colonies and semi-colonies also grew dramatically. There were 2,279 companies in 1904, and by 1910, the number had grown to 5,499. Britain ranked first in the world in capital export, thus becoming the largest international exploiter and plunderer. Colonial plunder became the biggest feature of British imperialism. Therefore, Lenin called it colonial imperialism.

Through the export of large amounts of capital, the British bourgeoisie extracted huge profits from the colonies. In 1899, British income from foreign investment amounted to between 90 million and 100 million pounds. In this way, a huge rentier class was created in the UK who lived by "cutting the total votes". It can be seen from the emergence of this extremely decadent parasitic class that Britain at this time has changed from a typical industrial country to a typical rentier country. The parasitism and decadence of British imperialism are very obvious here.

2. The Liberal Party and the Conservative Party have taken turns in power:

Since the 1860s, the two major bourgeois parties in the UK, the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, have been in power alternately. During the transition to academic nationalism, with the Britain's economic status and changes, the differences between the two parties are increasingly narrowing, and policies are becoming more and more consistent. In essence, both parties represent the interests of the monopoly bourgeoisie. They are just asking how to maintain British industrial hegemony after entering the imperialist class, how to deal with the growing democratic movement, and what methods to adopt in overseas colonization. The two sides disagreed over the details and steps.

For more than 20 years from 1851 to 1874, except for a short period of time, the Liberal Party almost dominated the political power. During this period, Britain still maintained its position as the world's industrial hegemon, was relatively unruly at home, and had a relatively strong democratic atmosphere. The ruling class does not need a powerful state apparatus to maintain its rule. During this period, most of the British troops were stationed in overseas colonies, and the number of domestic troops and police was extremely small. The liberal way of governing was naturally implemented.

In the 1970s, with the loss of industrial hegemony and domestic stability, the British bourgeoisie changed its liberal governance style and strengthened the state apparatus. The power of Congress has been weakened, while the power of the cabinet has been greatly increased. By the 1980s, there was a split within the Liberal Party. The Liberal opposition, under the leadership of Joseph Changdlin, turned to the Conservative Party, demanding the strengthening of the state apparatus, the establishment of an exclusive British imperial economic system, and the use of high tariffs to protect the British market. Prevent foreign competition and preserve Britain's industrial monopoly. In terms of foreign policy, they advocated pursuing a policy of imperialist aggression and expanding the colonies of the British Empire. Internally, they advocated strengthening the suppression of the workers' movement.

In this case, the conservative power has risen. In the forty-one years from 1874 to 1915, the Conservative Party was in power for 23 years and the Liberal Party was in power for 18 years. It was during this period that the differences between the two parties became increasingly narrower. In domestic affairs, the two parties are almost completely in agreement on major issues, except that the Conservative Party demands further strengthening of centralization of power. In oppositional policies, especially on colonial policy issues, the main difference between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party lies in the naked use of On the issue of violence or covert use of violence. Since the 1970s, the power of the leaders of the two parties has been greatly strengthened. This situation marks the shift in British politics from democracy and freedom to authoritarian reaction.

In the twentieth century, as the contradiction between Britain and Germany intensified, both the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party actively pursued the policy of arms expansion and war preparation. The Conservative cabinet finally gave up the traditional policy of "glorious isolation" and formed an Anglo-Japanese alliance in 1902. In 1904, the Anglo-French Treaty was concluded, and in 1907, the Treaty with Russia was signed. Since then, the Liberal cabinet reiterated the so-called "two-power standard" proposed by the Conservative government in 1889, that is, for every warship built by the German Navy, Britain will build two.

The British fleet will always maintain a strength equal to that of the other two navies of the world combined. At the same time, the British government continued to increase its military budget. From 1905 to 1907, it averaged 59.8 million pounds per year; from 1911 to 1913, it increased to an average of 73.3 million pounds per year. caused a new upsurge in the labor movement.

Reference materials: Editors-in-chief Wu Yuxi and Qi Shirong: "World History? Modern History Volumes 1 and 2" Higher Education Press. Editors-in-chief such as Liu Zuochang: "General History of the World? Modern Volumes" People's Publishing House