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The Eighteenth Century Empire: The London Dissenters' Lobbies and the American Colonies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

Alison G. Olson
Alison G. Olson
Affiliation:
Alison G. Olson is Professor of History, University of Maryland at College Park, Maryland 20742–7315, USA.
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Extract

In the eighteenth century England had virtually no army and only a handful of administrators in its American colonies: the empire was held together by voluntary compliance, not coercion. One of the reasons the American colonists acquiesced in imperial decisions was that they had an effective way to influence them through London lobbies working on the Americans' behalf. London interest groups spoke and acted on behalf of their colonial correspondents before the ministry, the Privy Council, the Board of Trade and, less often, Parliament; in so doing they gave the colonists an input into imperial decision-making and provided vital information to the government.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , April 1992 , pp. 41 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

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