(^276) Chapter Eight
pulling in the same direction as the special interest of private arms
makers and the steel and shipbuilding industries, it is not so surprising
that the Admiralty got more money to spend for new ships in 1889
than it had asked for or expected. The effect within British society,
clearly, was to confirm and strengthen vested interests in continued,
indeed expanded, naval appropriations.^26
This became obvious as the five-year plan of 1889 neared its end. In
1893, a general trade depression hit; Gladstone was back in office and
earnestly opposed the idea of increasing taxes to pay for more war
ships in a time of economic downswing. But when it came to the
pinch, no other member of the Cabinet agreed with his views. After
tense weeks of debate, Gladstone resigned rather than endorse the
naval building plan which his ministerial colleague, Lord Spencer,
brought in as First Lord of the Admiralty. Once Gladstone was out of
the way, the program, requiring a five-year expenditure of £21.2
million, passed through Parliament with ease. Publicists aroused sup
port for the bill swiftly and skillfully. Indeed such agitation became
fully institutionalized with the establishment of the Navy League in
1894.
New crises were swift in coming, for by the 1890s other nations had
caught the naval fever, including such industrial giants as the United
States and Germany. An American naval officer, Alfred Thayer
Mahan, published his famous volumes, The Influence of Sea Power on
History, in 1890 and 1892 in an effort to persuade Americans of the
importance of building a new, modern navy. His success at home in
the United States as well as abroad, especially in Germany, was
phenomenal. As a result, with the new century, the two-power stan
dard became impractical for Britain at a time when the outbreak of the
Boer War dramatized the country’s isolation. The unexpectedly long
and difficult character of that war raised military and naval expendi
tures to hitherto unequaled levels, so it was not until 1905, when a
new Liberal government took office, that an opportunity to bring mil
itary expenditure under stricter control again seemed to present itself.
By that time Admiral Fisher had become First Sea Lord, remaining
dirure were mainly defrayed; but independently of this personal consideration, the wage
earning classes are very proud of the Navy.” Lord George Hamilton, Parliamentary Re
flections 1886–1906 (London, 1922), pp. 220–21.
- Arthur J. Marder, “The English Armaments Industry and Navalism in the
Nineties,” Pacific Historical Review 7 (1938): 241–53, cites industrial spokesmen on this
point. It is worth noting, perhaps, that Royal Navy ships built under the 1889 bill were
the first to use nickel steel armor and to rely wholly on steam propulsion. Remodeling
older ships to remove masts and rigging was an important (and expensive) part of the
1889 naval building program.