William Pitts initial agreement put through by parliament was the financing of 75,000 men in order to protect the countries interests, with the advent of war this was increased to 500,000, Britain was not going to let liberal ideas extend through Europe without a fight . These men were a combination of English, Irish, foreigners and Militiamen. It would be thought loosing so many workers to war would be costly but this was not so. Getting the best men to join proved difficult, many were forced to fight, known as quota men, and they were often bribed and threatened. The richer men were able to buy or bribe themselves out of service, and so conscription in many ways became a tax on the wealthy. As it was difficult to attract the attention of the better workers the army and navy were often in competition against one another, men were offered the chance to see the world, promised adventure, looting and prize money. It was hoped this would attract the "better quality" man, yet chaplains, surgeons, schoolmasters, etc had to be hired at the market rate. In the merchant navy due to the competition from the royal navy wages increased sharply, men had to be convinced by brute force a lot of the time. In fact only 1/5 of the crew on Nelson's Trafalgar had volunteered to be on the ship in 1805 when there was the famous victory. It was believed that due to the demand for workers to fight, the army was taking skilled and unskilled workers from the civil economy, however there was no evidence to support this, as many of these men were actually unemployable, and unskilled. It was said " the casualties suffered by the unfortunate victims these French wars would not represent any substantial depletion of 'human capital' " . The 208,000 males aged between 20-30 that died in the war only represented 4% of the workforce . Hence any argument that would suggest war was costly in terms of human capital would find it hard to ignore these figures, although it was saddening so many die, it represented little cost to the economy. The losses could be quickly replaced in both agriculture and industry, as the population of the country had been growing fast in the years preceding the war.
In the lead up to war Agriculture was still the countries largest employer and was producing 1/3 of the national output, but there were fears that blockades on the continent and inefficiencies in our system could lead to starvation. New methods in production in the sector had led to improvements during the 1780s; naturally it would be thought that war would increase the hardships in farming however it didn’t. Between 1793 and 1815 this was a time of prosperity despite poor harvests and high taxes, grain became expensive and profits for the farmer soared. This was because farmers had less competition from imports due to blockades on the continent, as well as this people who were recruited in to the army and navy, as well as increased government fiscal spending meant there were more workers and they had more money. Foreign imports were still important though, Napoleon saw this as a weakness, in 1807 he blockaded all European ports yet improvements in efficiency on the farm such as enclosures meant the country became virtually self sufficient and this action failed. By 1800 the sector was providing almost nine tenths of demand for wheat and almost all the needs for other grains . Thus war was beneficial for the industry, in fact after war agriculture entered a time of distress. This was because farmers no longer had protection from foreign imports, to solve the situation many farmers increased their supplies of grain and meat yet this drove prices lower. As the landowning elite held most of the power in the houses of parliament the Corn Laws were put in place between 1815 and 1846 to give the sector aid by keeping prices high. Therefore it can be seen that war extended the profitability in this area and funded improvements in efficiency, it was only damaging when it ended.
Foreign commerce had always been very important to the British economy as pre-war 40% of all industrial items produced were being exported. It would be thought that during war this would decrease however surprisingly between 1793 and 1802 exports were actually still increasing; this can be attributed to links with America especially in manufactured goods. But it was not just to America, between 1798 and 1802 exports to Europe were also increasing, supplies of cotton rose 42% by 1815. This replaced the woollen markets that had once dominated, yet new markets were found for these. Exports of raw materials also increased due to advancements in technology such as the reduction of costs in producing iron. A lot of foreign competition was also kept out of the country meaning industrialists were operating in an exclusive market, with only the government as a main source of threat, whom were reluctant to crowd out private enterprise. As Britain was evident for its trade around the world it became responsible for many neutral ships that were sailing in to Europe, this lead to the development of insurance companies. Thus this was damaging for European economies because they could not provide the service that Britain could. War therefore gave Britain an advantage over its European counterparts because it was able to branch out in to new markets, and form new trading alliances, providing money both during and after the fighting. With less foreign competition and more liberal financial institutions, Britain’s Navy was able to take control of the worlds carrying trade, and provided financial protection. In later years this allowed conditions for operating in a Liberal world economy, the advantages massive.
These conditions allowed industry on a whole to perform well, this was because wages increased, and credit from banks became more accessible. This meant the common worker was able to purchase more food and other goods, and money was ploughed back in to the economy. This did also lead to higher taxes though, as well as competition from the government for investable funds, raw materials, and unskilled workers. War depressed the building industry as materials became expensive due to demand in the military, and Brewers and distillers saw beer and spirits levied. Monetary policy by the government was effective though; issuing bonds that gave tax incentives, and interest bonuses, this was a fast way of generating cash. The popularity of this quickly grew by 1812 when there were 726 Bond Brokers in London and many new banks developed to deal with the paper securities . It was said this caused the economy to become “awash with money” and inflation increased to over 3% per annum, yet due the amounts of revenue the government generated many believed war virtually paid for itself pay for itself. There are of course disagreements with this though.
