The agitators who supported Wilkes,solid aldermen and rich merchants,represented the view which was popular in London and other great cities.They were the backbone of the Whig party when it began to demand a serious reform.Their radicalism,however,was not thoroughly democratic.Many of them aspired to become members of the ruling class,and a shopkeeper does not quarrel too thoroughly with his customers.The politics of individuals were of course determined by accidents.Some of them might retain the sympathy of the class from which they sprang,and others might adopt an even extreme version of the opinions of the class to which they desired to rise.But,in any case,the divergence of interest between the capitalists and the labourers was already making itself felt.The self-made man,it is said,is generally the hardest master.He approves of the stringent system of competition,of which he is himself a product.It clearly enables the best man to win,for is he not himself the best man?The class which was the great seat of movement had naturally to meet all the prejudices which are roused by change.The farmers near London,as Adam Smith tells us,(2)petitioned against an extension of turnpike roads,which would enable more distant farmers to compete in their market.But the farmers were not the only prejudiced persons.All the great inventors of machinery,Kay and Arkwright and Watt,had constantly to struggle against the old workmen who were displaced by their inventions.
Although,therefore,the class might be Whiggish,it did not share the strongest revolutionary passions.The genuine revolutionists were rather the men who destroyed the manufacturer's machines,and were learning to regard him as a natural enemy.The manufacturer had his own reasons for supporting government.
Our foreign policy during the century Was in the long run chiefly determined by the interests of our trade,however much the trade might at times be hampered by ill-conceived regulations.It is remarkable that Adam Smith(3)argues that,although the capitalist is acuter that the country-gentleman,his acuteness is chiefly displayed by knowing his own interests better.Those interests,he thinks,do not coincide so much as the interests of the country-gentleman with the general interests of the country.Consequently the country-gentleman,though less intelligent,is more likely to favour a national and liberal policy.The merchant,in fact,was not a free-trader because he had read Adam Smith or consciously adopted Smith's principles,but because or in so far as particular restrictions interfered with him.Arthur Young complains bitterly of the manufacturers who supported the prohibition to export English wool,and so protected their own class at the expense of agriculturists.
Wedgwood,though a good liberal and a supporter of Pitt's French treaty in 1786,joined in protesting against the proposal for free-trade with Ireland.
The Irish,he thought,might rival his potteries.Thus,though as a matter of fact the growing class of manufacturers and merchants were inclined in the main to liberal principles,it was less from adhesion to any general doctrine than from the fact that the existing restrictions and prejudices generally conflicted with their plain interests.