ABSTRACT
From the Treaty of Vienna in 1815 to the death of Palmerston in 1865, Britain could reasonably be described as a ‘satiated’ power in Europe and, for the most part overseas, with no particular ambitions to pursue. The industrial revolution had given her a long lead over her potential rivals and the British wanted peace and stability in the world and the general triumph of free trade ideals. Free trade had come to assume the status almost of a gospel in Britain, where it was believed that it would ensure not only universal prosperity but also universal peace. Its virtues were argued most persuasively by the leaders of the Manchester School, Richard Cobden with his almost unanswerable logic, and John Bright, who added the emotional salt of his Quaker beliefs. Ironically, it was in the 1860s, when free trade ideals seemed to have at last triumphed in Europe, when even France was dismantling her protectionist system and had signed a free trade treaty with Britain, negotiated by Cobden himself, that the first cracks began to appear.
