Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The British government would not default again until 1934 when it failed to keep up repayments on its WWI debt to the USA. [3] About 3 ⁄ 7 of British national debt in 1776, and 1 ⁄ 3 of major stocks like the East India Company, were held by Dutch bankers. [4]
The following table gives gross domestic product (GDP) estimates of the British Empire and its territories in 1870 and 1913, as a percentage of the world economy and the empire's economy, along with comparisons to the United States and Russian Empire. The British imperial territory with the largest economy in 1870 was British India (including ...
The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) brought great financial burdens on Great Britain, Kingdom of Prussia, Austria, France, and Sweden.The costs of fighting a protracted war on several continents meant Britain's national debt almost doubled from 1756 to 1763, and this financial pressure which Britain tried to alleviate through new taxation in the Thirteen Colonies helped cause the American Revolution.
As industrialisation took effect in the late 18th and early 19th century, the United Kingdom possessed a strong national government that provided a standard currency, an efficient legal system, efficient taxation, and effective support for overseas enterprise both within the British Empire and in independent nations.
The rise and growth of the national debt, combined with the creation of an effective banking system. (The greater part of the 18th century was occupied with the working out of these results.) The government of William III faced the expense of war whilst simultaneously needing to allay discontent at home. As a preliminary to settling the ...
Map of the world showing the extent of the British Empire in 1886. Between 1815 and 1914, a period referred to as Britain's "imperial century" by some historians, [113] around 10 million sq mi (26 million km 2) of territory and roughly 400 million people were added to the British Empire. [114]
The Panic of 1847 was a major British commercial and banking crisis, possibly triggered by the announcement in early March 1847 of government borrowing to pay for relief to combat the Great Famine in Ireland. [1] [2] It is also associated with the end of the 1840s railway industry boom and the failure of many non-bank lenders.
Empire size in this list is defined as the dry land area it controlled at the time, which may differ considerably from the area it claimed. For example: in the year 1800, European powers collectively claimed approximately 20% of the Earth's land surface that they did not effectively control. [ 8 ]