ABSTRACT
How much of the credit for these reforms is to be assigned to Walpole it is difficult to say. By the time economic legislation reaches the statute book it may appear to be the product of one controlling mind, but this is rarely true. In most cases it was rather the pressure of rival interests than any coherent plan that initiated it. Most measures of an economic character can be traced back to petitions from groups of merchants, or special towns or individual colonies. The motion that the petition be read, often moved by a member with local interests, then led to a debate in the Commons, which gave ample opportunity for any members who were in any way concerned to put forward their special interests. There were plenty of merchants in the House competent to discuss such measures. The West Indian lobby was a strong one; the East India Company
was well represented; the Baltic merchants and those engaged in the Levant all had their advocates; members from ports regularly championed the needs of their constituencies. When ministers were concerned it was usually because of the influence which these conflicting interests might have on parliamentary votes. The West Indian lobby was too powerful for Walpole, or any other minister, to risk driving it into opposition; the goodwill of the East India Company was worth retaining. When Walpole insisted on the renewal of its charter in 1730-in face of the clamours of the oppo sition for a regulated company-he was thinking not only of the advantages of having a strong company to control a distant trade but also of the £200,000 that the Company was prepared to contribute to the supplies for that year. To support his own practical common sense in deciding the ministerial line when economic issues were raised in the House, Walpole had access to the sensible and wellinformed advice of his Treasury officials and of the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations.
