ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that successive British governments in the 1689–1815 period saw war as a means of promoting commercial growth and sought to achieve a military and diplomatic equilibrium as the essential condition for maintaining and extending trade. In this particular case, the government was eager to be informed of any new regulations that might harm trade. In 1739, Edward Finch suggested that the Swedish government needed to have its eyes opened by Parliamentary legislation affecting Anglo-Swedish trade. The wider contextualisation of trade was seen with Anglo-French commercial and colonial rivalries during the period of the alliance from 1716 to 1731. In considering government bodies involved with trade, the direct role of the Crown was modest. The Board was suppressed in 1782 as part of the opposition’s campaign to abolish sinecures in order to save money and to weaken government: the Board was particularly unpopular with the opposition due to its role in colonial policy.
