Exam 15: European Monarchies and Absolutism,1660-1725

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England's Glorious Revolution established a climate that favored the growth and political power of the English commercial classes,especially the increasing number of people concentrated in English cities whose livelihood depended on international commerce in the Atlantic world and beyond.In the decades to come,trade became a political issue,and merchant's associations began to lobby Parliament for favorable legislation.Whigs in Parliament became the voice of this newly influential pressure group of commercial entrepreneurs,who sought to challenge the monopoly enjoyed by the East India Company (founded with a royal charter in 1600)and open up colonial trade to competitors.They also argued that royal charter companies discouraged English manufacture by importing cheaper goods from abroad.The Whigs also argued for revisions to the tax code that would benefit those engaged in manufacturing and trade,rather than the landed elites who had benefited from the tax regime under the Stuarts.In 1694,the Whigs succeeded in establishing the Bank of England,with the explicit goal of facilitating the promotion of English power through the generation of wealth,inaugurating a financial revolution that would make London the center of a vast network of international banking and investment in the eighteenth century.