ABSTRACT
Manufacture by machinery produced goods on a large scale at a low price and gave a new importance to commerce; for the first time it became possible to sell Western goods to Eastern peasants, and trade took the place of tribute as the end of policy. Moreover commerce required, and the Liberal philosophy implied, a new attitude to native welfare. Liberal views prevailed among the Dutch when they regained possession of their colony in 1816–1819. The growth of trade brought British subjects to Rangoon and at the same time British rule in India expanded until it reached the frontier of Burma. British rule in Burma was inspired from the outset by the new Liberal principles. The Dutch in Java and the English in India inherit a long tradition of political relations with their subjects, dating from before the rise of modern industry; French rule in Indo-China is little older than the Suez Canal.
