Following closely upon the inventions enumerated above came the Napoleonic wars, which engaged the most of the continent and threw a large share of European commerce into English hands. At a prodigious cost immense armies were kept in the field against France, and to supply the wants of these required the employment of an industrial army at home. England had the advantage that, while being a participator in the war, her fields and cities were not devastated nor her territory invaded by the armies. Prices were high and English goods in great demand. Thus the period of war was a commercial advantage to England. Meanwhile the development of the industries resulted in a great improvement in the means of transit and commerce throughout Britain. Goods manufactured must be sold and transported, and better means of carrying were needed. Paths for pack-horses were converted into wagon and cart roads, canals were built, rivers cleared and utilized, and the way thus paved for the introduction of steam power to locomotion a little later.

After the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of peace throughout Europe in 1815, there came a period of reaction and commercial depression in England which lasted ten years. This was caused chiefly by the efforts of continental nations to revive their own shattered industries by means of severe protective tariffs, which practically shut out English manufactures. A series of bad harvests coming about the same time, together with the high taxes incident to the war, placed the country in a severe strait. The distress was aggravated by the so-called "Corn Laws," which were enacted as a means of relief to the farmers, and provided that no corn should be imported unless the price was 80s a quarter.* The result was expensive bread for the working classes, and the many substitutes resorted to for bread raised the price of other foods. Riots and public meetings were held among the mining and manufacturing districts throughout the whole of England. The period of greatest distress was from 1817 to 1819, and during that time the strong arm of the government was necessary to maintain peace and order. In 1819 came a severe financial panic, and in the single year no less than 3,552 bankruptcies occurred in England alone. Gradually an improvement came. The Bank of England resumed specie payment in 1821. Injurious laws and restrictions were modified, business with the colonies increased and commerce revived.

During this period of war and commercial depression at home England was growing rich in colonial possessions abroad. She not only defeated the French in India as previously stated, and extended her holdings in that direction, but acquired Malacca, Ceylon (1796) and the Cape of Good Hope (1806), besides Australia and many minor dependencies. Captain Cook had discovered New Zealand in 1769, and by his advice in 1788 a shipload of convicts were sent out and Sidney was founded as a penal colony. A few sheep were carried thither in 1797, and the fine pastures proved wonderfully adapted to their rearing. The wool was of such excellent quality that this, together with gold, subsequently made Australia one of England's richest and most important colonies.

The period of 1825 to 1850 may be said to mark the transition stage from protection to free trade in England's commercial policy. Prior to this time more or less severe restrictions had been placed upon manufacturing, agriculture and commerce. Numerous monopolies had been granted, as in the case of the Hudson Bay and East India Companies. The Navigation Acts passed in 1651 continued in force, and every commodity, raw and manufactured, was fettered with customs or excise duties. A radical change in England's policy, requiring twenty-five years for its consummation, was now to take place. In 1820 a company of London merchants sent up a petition to Parliament, praying that all duties except for purposes of revenue might at once be repealed. A similar petition came from the Chamber of Commerce of Edinburgh. Parliament appointed a committee to investigate the question, and the report of the committee was unanimously in favor of granting the relief asked. The Navigation Acts were at once modified and their severity relaxed. The duties on raw silk and wool were reduced despite the opposition of the wool growers. A Reciprocity Bill was introduced by Mr. Huskisson, President of the London Board of Trade, and passed by Parliament, giving foreign ships equal advantages in England to those accorded English ships trading in foreign ports. For a period of nearly twenty-five years the pendulum of public sentiment was swinging in the direction of free trade, but it was not until 1849 that the Navigation Acts were entirely repealed, the Corn Laws abolished, and England had committed herself unreservedly to the policy of free trade.

*A quarter equals 8.252 bushels in our measure and 80s per quarter would be equivalent to about $2.36 per bushel.

Meanwhile the mighty impulse given to the iron trade and the application of steam to transportation by land and water were developing commerce and the industries to a still greater degree. Fulton had demonstrated the use of steam for the propulsion of ships in 1807, and in 1838 the first steamship, The Great Western, crossed the Atlantic. The voyage to America which had hitherto required five or six weeks was now suddenly reduced to a little more than a week. The British fleet of merchant vessels increased to twelve or fourteen times its size of thirty years before, and under free trade, England became the focus for ships of other nations bearing the products of nature and art from every clime, and returning, radiated from the same ports freighted with English manufactures for world-wide use. The invention of the telegraph in 1846 was another great step in advance, and with the penny post the means of communication became so improved that supply and demand were regulated, extensive fluctuations in prices avoided, and a steady and healthy commerce promoted. The discovery of gold in Australia in 1851 led to extensive emigation to that colony, vastly increasing the colonial trade of England. Within ten years gold was sent to the mother country to the amount of £100,000,000. This influx of the precious metal by cheapening money raised prices of commodities generally, and thus stimulated production. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 afforded a shorter and quicker route to the East, and led to an extension of commerce with India, China, Australia and the East Indies. The culture of cotton was introduced into Australia, and given a great impetus in 1861-1865 by the scarcity of the American fiber, occasioned by the war of the Eebellion which blockaded American ports, and soon Australian cotton rivaled in quality the celebrated "Sea Island" growth. Besides copper, tin, iron, wine and wheat, wool also came from Australia in large quantities. From India and Ceylon came cotton, indigo, jute, rice, wheat, horns, hides, tea and coffee. Thus England's eastern possessions continued to expand, while roads, canals, railroads and telegraph lines were constructed throughout those colonies.