ABSTRACT
The term ‘empire’ had its origin in a Latin word associated with notions of ‘command’ or ‘power’. it could mean the territorial possessions of a state outside its strict national boundaries. Fundamentally the empire – true to its derivation – was a manifestation of British power and influence, and whatever strange individual shapes they took, the colonies all shared this common characteristic, that they owed their origins in some way to British economic, political and cultural predominance in the world. The apostles of the ‘free trade’ creed in the mid-nineteenth century favoured a more subtle kind of empire, a method by which ‘foreign nations would become valuable Colonies to us, without imposing on us the responsibility of governing them’. The method was to dominate the world by means of a natural superiority in industry and commerce. Twenty-five years later, this had achieved for Britain what Herman Merivale called 'almost an empire, in all but name'.
