Imperialism in the Free Trade Era

Abstract

In the last two decades the mid-Victorian years have achieved a certain notoriety in the history of the British empire. Long regarded as the ‘Little England’ era, they have now been dubbed, amid much controversy, the golden age of British expansion overseas. This new-found glory, however, has not been without its detractors, and the debate concerning both the ‘imperialism of free trade’ and Victorian arguments about empire has by no means ended.