ABSTRACT
It may seem the supreme irony in the development of modern Britain that the age of classic economic Liberalism exactly coincided with the growth of government. Between 1830 and 1870 the foundations of modern government were laid in the teeth of a gale. The rhetoric of politicians lauded competition, individual enterprise and local self-determination while decrying State aid, State interference and - horror of horrors - State control. When Gladstone introduced free trade budgets his belief was that commerce would flourish as government restrictions were withdrawn. He never abandoned hope of abolishing income tax as the supreme incentive to lean and hungry entrepreneurs who could rely on the cheapest possible government not to cramp their competitive style.
