ABSTRACT
The American crisis had been a long time unfolding and many Britons had become exasperated with their colonial brethren. The effect of the loss of America on the 'reform movement' is also hard to establish. The campaign for economical reform undoubtedly received a great boost from the financial hardships of the American War, though it had started before, and in turn it sent the movement for parliamentary reform into orbit. The American Revolution and its consequences were swallowed up by the industrial revolution. Britain was supplying 90 per cent of America's imports and in 1790 the inspector-general of imports and exports reported to Elder Pitt that 'the vast increase of the Trade of this country since the termination of the last war must be a matter of astonishment'. For the general British public, the experience of the American War was soon overshadowed by the French Revolution, nearer to hand, more protracted, and far more searching in the questions it posed.
