Then, too, as we shall see in a
subsequent chapter, it was in the England of the eighteenth century
that the Industrial Revolution began,--a marvelous improvement in
manufacturing, which fostered the growth of a powerful industrial class
and enabled the English to make goods more cheaply and in greater
profusion and to sell them more readily, at lower prices, both at home
and abroad, than any other people in the world. Industry was fast
becoming the basis of Great Britain's wealth, and the commercial
classes were acquiring new strength and influence. It was, therefore,
against "a nation of shopkeepers," as Napoleon contemptuously dubbed
the English, that he must direct his new campaign.
To Napoleon's clear and logical mind, the nature of the problem was
plain. Deprived of a navy and unable to utilize his splendid army, he
must attack Great Britain in what appeared to be her one vulnerable
spot--in her commerce and industry. If he could prevent the importation
of British goods into the Continent, he would deprive his rivals of the
chief markets for their products, ruin British manufacturers, throw
thousands of British workingmen out of employment, create such hard
times in the British Islands that the mass of the people would rise
against their government and compel it to make peace with him on his
own terms: in a word, he would ruin British commerce and industry and
then secure an advantageous peace.
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