free trade agitation

free trade agitation (1778–9). Restrictions imposed from England on Irish trade, in particular the Woollen Act and Navigation Acts, were a well‐established patriot grievance. Resentment grew from 1776 when an embargo on the export of provisions, imposed in February 1776 to guarantee supplies for the British army and navy, was blamed for what was in fact a general economic depression caused by the American Revolution. In 1778 the government supported legislation, sponsored by Irish MPs at Westminster, to allow Ireland a free trade with the colonies, but the proposed concessions were attenuated following opposition from British manufacturing interests. During 1779 a systematic non‐importation movement promoted a boycott of British goods in Ireland. A major demonstration of armed Volunteers at the statue of William III in College Green, Dublin, on 4 November involved menacing demands for ‘a free trade or else’, while on 15 November a crowd of 3,000–4,000 demonstrated violently outside parliament. MPs responded with a ‘short money bill’, granting taxes for six months instead of the usual year. On 13 December the prime minister, Lord North, announced that Ireland would be allowed to trade freely with the colonies, and to export glass and wool.

‘A free trade’ in the late 1770s thus meant, not trade without tariff barriers, but equal participation in the English mercantilist system. For the debate on free trade proper after 1922 see protectionism.