ABSTRACT
In 1783, W. Morton Pitt forwarded to Foreign Secretary, Thomas, Second Lord Grantham, former diplomat, a memorial from some of his constituents, the mayor and merchants of Poole, opposing the idea of concessions in Newfoundland to France during the peace negotiations at the close of the War of American Independence. Trade and empire are emphasized differently for the period 1783–1815. Strategic considerations, particularly vulnerability and opportunity, were key to this expansion, and were more urgent than the earlier tendency, seen during the inter-war period of 1783–93, to regard territorial expansion as necessary to consolidate commercial positions. In 1787, Hawkesbury was pressed by Jack Hood, as Lord North had been when in office, to support the cause of independence for Spanish America. In 1786, Charles James Fox had been worried about ‘sacrificing political importance to gain and peace’, as, he claimed, the Dutch had long tended to do,81 but the last combination was no longer an option for Britain from 1793.
