ABSTRACT
In 1750 Britain's trade with the West Indies, the traditional favourite of mercantilist opinion, was still more valuable than her traffic with the Far East, and yet the British East India Company was regarded by Parliament, government and public alike as a gilt-edged national investment. The West Indian sugar economy but the tobacco, rice and indigo production of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas and Louisiana were entirely dependent on imported slave labour. In 1750 Joseph Francois Dupleix was warmly congratulated by his directors in Paris on 'la glorieuse action de nos troupes', one of a string of military and diplomatic actions which seemed to herald the annexation of a new French empire in the Carnatic and the Deccan. The end of the Austrian Succession conflict had left the 'Old System' of Whig alliances in a ruinous state, Newcastle, too old a dog to learn new tricks readily, once again approached Austria for the necessary guarantees of the electorate's security.
