John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough 1650-1722

Battle of Blenheim 1704

• saved Vienna and thus preserved the grand alliance
• knocked Bavaria out of the war, therefore depriving Louis of his principal ally
• destroyed the myth that Louis XIV was invincible
• marked Britain's coming of age as a European power
• made possible for Whig majorities in the elections of 1705 and 1708, providing fund to support Marlborough. More crushing victories ensued.

Treaty of Utrecht 1713

Treaty of Rastatt 1714

Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford 1661-1724

Louis XV 1710-1774

Spain and France were exhausted due to the warfare and could no longer compete on the same level. Britain's territorial acquisition seals its status as the greatest trading nation on earth.

Matthew Prior 1664-1721

"... the monuments of my master's actions are to be seen everywhere but his own house."

Britain sovereign had found a way to raise money for war without impoverishing his subjects but rather by making them his partners through trade and empire.

Trade

American trade: sugar, tobacco, slaves, fur, fish

East India trade: silks, spices, pepper, medicines

Charles Montagu 1661-1715

The financial revolution, "the longest purse must win", "the sinews of power", a more professional bureaucracy

His idea was to get merchants who are benefiting from the commercial revolution to loan large quick sums to the government voluntarily.

• In 1693, he established a permanent fund out of the land tax, the customs and the excise to service the loans made by the government (to guarantee the interest would be paid). So basically he created a national funded debt.
• He sold merchant community annuities.
• In 1694, he established government-sponsored lotteries.
• He also sponsored the Bank of England.

Moneyed Men

The lucrative, yet cruel and criminal Atlantic system

• The Navigation Acts
• The Slave Trade
• Triangular Trade
• The Irish Penal Code
• The destruction of North American civilizations

Thanks to the commercial and financial revolutions, the system that won in the 18th century was British constitutionalism, not French absolutism.