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Discuss the connection between natural history and political economy in Britain in the second half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Sir Joseph Banks. Political Links The Earl of Sandwich George III William Pitt Earls of Liverpool. Sir Joseph Banks.
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Discuss the connection between natural history and political economy in Britain in the second half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century.
Sir Joseph Banks • Political Links • The Earl of Sandwich • George III • William Pitt • Earls of Liverpool
Sir Joseph Banks • Kew Botanical Gardens • 1759 • Sovereignty through plants • Economic power expressed through botany • Patriotism • Agriculture as an ‘improver’ of the nation • Enclosure • Protectionism and support of landed interests • Conflict with France
Centres of Calculation • Networks • Patronage of Exploration • Accumulation of knowledge and familiarity with foreignness • Merchants and trading used to expand knowledge of natural history
British Empire • Making best use of the land • Better educated to make better use of it • Transferring plants for wider cultivation • Tea Cultivation • Trade to Colonisation • Economic Dominance
Knowledge and Power • Botany as diplomatic currency • Gift giving • Cost of collecting novelties contributes to dignity of crown and standing of the country
The 19th Century • Individual influence in data accumulation narrowed • Nationalisation of culture and rationalisation of government • Banks’ collections eventually passed to the British Museum • Natural history and science remained prominent
Sweet blooms the rose, the towering oak expands, the grace and guard of Britain’s golden lands.