What was the British Empire like when Victoria came to the throne?
When she came to the throne, she was Queen over a rag bag collection of territories overseas. Britain is primarily a trading power. [M]ost of its exports are to territories which we don’t possess — foreign countries, in other words. What we do have is a string of naval bases encompassing the whole world. The Royal Navy can dominate every ocean — Gibraltar, Malta, Cape Colony, and later, Hong Kong. The Navy is a vital partner in trade. If you’re a British businessman, shall we say, doing business in the Argentine, and your stock is seized by some local official, eventually the Navy will come to your assistance. So the Navy is a vital accessory to Britain’s global trading. Then you’ve got real estate, you’ve got the Sugar Islands in the West Indies, Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados. These are on the verge of bankruptcy when Victoria becomes Queen. Britain’s abolished slavery, and the British public, by a supreme irony, prefer to buy the cheap sugar produced by slaves in Spanish Cuba rather t
