ABSTRACT
Theories of colonial development were at best fragmentary and the notion of an Imperial policy of any cohesion was rarely enunciated. Urbanisation and industrialisation in Great Britain were achieved with comparatively little direct government intervention. Industrial development resulted in a substantial export trade in manufactured items and an import trade in raw materials and foodstuffs. The production of sugar in the West Indies and tobacco in North America fell within the realm of the direct exploitation of colonies through the British cultivation of crops required in the metropole. The binding of the Empire through the influence of the metropole, and through the economic system developed in the British Isles and its trading system, was reinforced through the export of people and ideas. The British Isles were a major source of manpower for the British Empire, both on the temporary administrative and commercial basis, but more significantly as a source of permanent immigrants.
