Britain's imperialism of trade

Galagher and Robinson’s article is mostly about how the British managed their economy. The writers make it obvious that the brithish colonies were what helped Britain gain it’s power weher they admit it or not. Also we go into the issue of imperialis, which means extending policies to rule the british colonies. Many of Britain became divided at times into “imperialism and anti-imperialism”. The british people were in favor of imperialism when it’s advantageous and non-imperialism when it’s convien to be. However, their was a problem with imperialism some people argued that it only applied “to the period after 1880”. This because the  the Victorians at the time were changing brithish culture into something  unorthodox. This too lead to another separation “mid-Victorian 'indifference' and late-Victorian 'enthusiasm'. These periods according to the author were related to the rise and fall of free trade. These were the  “imperialism and anti-imperialism” times based on how well the colonies are benefiting them. Yet it seemed to everyone that british trade was tighning. So we see Britain benefiting from “laissez-faire period India” where opium and salt are taxed by the Britain.

After this the british moves to dominate south America, recking hevock in many nations there, their policies on these countries were controversial but they just kept going. But because of their questionable success in argentina and brazil we see the britsh “ economies had become sufficiently dependent on foreign trade”. Because of this dependence the britsh wanted whatever they could get and in their quest they tried china but failed since that could not lend them new customers and they “failed to break down Chinese economic self-sufficiency”. The british said that their interest In china was commercial but that doesn’t explain why after rebellions and the opium wars they still tried to control the Chinese trade.

The british then seem to concentrate on their trade ports in west Africa and even after the creation of the treaty of free trade and friendship, british’s African colonies remain it’s most important during the times of imperialism.