ABSTRACT
The National Debt, in 1816, was almost four times as high as in 1793 and more than double the output of Britains industrialising economy. The later years of the French wars saw rapid changes of government. Pitt's first ministry had lasted for more than seventeen years. Additionally, the strong anti-revolutionary consensus which had been cemented by the Pitt Portland coalition in 1794 held firm in the age of Napoleon. By 1815, a changing political configuration, more dependent on coherent political parties, can be discerned. Economic war against Napoleon had the unintended, and distinctly unwelcome, consequence of worsening relations with the United States. The British Orders in Council of 1807 aimed to disrupt French trade. United States challenged Britain's right to use its naval strength to define terms of trade in the Americas. Long- established nonconformist congregations grew more slowly in the early nineteenth century than did the more recently founded sects which formed a key part of the Evangelical Revival.
