Key learning points

1. During the 'long eighteenth century' Britain underwent both agricultural and industrial revolutions.
2. Historians have debated the extent to which these domestic developments led to the growth of the empire, or vice versa.
3. A growing population in North America and the burgeoning trade in enslaved people created a demand for British goods.
4. Some have argued that British manufacturing production owed more to demand from the domestic market than from overseas.
5. Others have suggested that protectionist trade policies led to colonies becoming a burden on Britain.

Keywords

• Industrial - economic activity related to the manufacturing and production of goods

• Demand - the willingness and ability of people to buy something

• Manufactured - something produced on a large scale by machines, usually in a factory

• Investment - the act of putting money, effort, time, etc., into something to make a profit or get an advantage

• Domestic market - the number of customers who have the ability to buy goods within their own country

Common misconception