A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

Challenges to Established Authority 419

The British government looked to extend the empire further, ordering the
systematic charting of the oceans and their winds and currents. James
Cook (1728—1779) sailed around New Zealand and along the eastern
coast of Australia in 1770, claiming half of the continent for Britain. He
was killed by indigenous people upon arriving in Hawaii, showing the dan­
gers of venturing into unfamiliar waters. In 1788 the African Institution
was established in London to encourage the exploration of Australia, only
some coastal regions of which were known. At the same time, British Evan­
gelicals imagined the conversion of the peoples with whom commerce and
empire brought the British into contact.
British sea power and growing commercial empire expanded global trade
beyond the luxury goods that had dominated it, particularly with the
beginning of the Industrial Revolution in England (see Chapter 10). En­
glish textile production began to outproduce India by many times. Mercan­
tilism s hold on the economic thinking of states disappeared forever. Britain
became the world’s major supplier of capital.
In the meantime, the advent to power in 1784 of William Pitt the
Younger (1759-1806) restored political stability in Britain. The next year,
Pitt introduced a wide-ranging bill for political reform. It proposed to
reduce the minimum tax required for the electoral franchise and to abolish
thirty-six rotten boroughs, awarding their representation to manufacturing
regions and cities. Opposition among the country gentlemen, as well as that
of the king himself, however, led to the bill’s defeat. But Pitt did manage to
eliminate useless offices that had become sinecures, introduce more accu­
rate accounting methods into government, and facilitated the collection of
excise taxes. Despite the personal failings of George III, Britain emerged
from the turbulent decades of the 1760s and 1770s with its constitutional
monarchy strengthened.

The Parlements and the French Monarchy

In France, two interrelated struggles in the early 1770s challenged the nature

of absolute rule. The first was against privileges held by nobles and other

corporate groups. The second opposed royal policies and pretensions that

seemed to verge on despotism. In a way, this debate somewhat paralleled

political issues in Britain.

In France, reformers seeking to limit royal authority had a daunting task

because of the absolute nature of monarchical rule. The kings of France

nonetheless depended on the support of the parlements. These law courts

were made up primarily of nobles, seated in Paris and in twelve provinces.

Their principal function was to give royal edicts the force of law by regis­

tering them. By refusing to register them, the parlements could impede the

functioning of the absolute state. Thus, when the king’s edicts had to do

with increased or new taxation, political opposition to royal policies some­

times emerged in the parlements.