The Rise of Free Trade Imperialism

To understand Mr Pitt, one must understand one of the suppressed characters of English history, and that is Lord Shelburne … [who adopted] a plan of commercial freedom, the germ of which may be found in the long-maligned negotiations of Utrecht, but which were soon in time matured by all the economic science of Europe, in which he was a proficient … for the first time since the Revolution, [Pitt and Shelburne] introduced into modern debate the legitimate principles on which commerce should be conducted … The commercial treaties of '87 were struck in the same mint, and are notable as the first effort made by the English government to emancipate the country from the restrictive policy which had been introduced by the ‘glorious revolution’ … In ordinary times the pupil of Shelburne [Pitt] would have raised this country to a state of great material prosperity, and removed or avoided many of the anomalies which now perplex us; but he was not destined for ordinary times; and, though his capacity was vast and his spirit lofty, he had not that passionate and creative genius required by an age of revolution.