Editing Whigs (British political party) (section)

==== Protectionism ====
At their inception, the Whigs were [[Protectionism|protectionist]] in economic policy, with [[free trade]] policies being advocated by Tories.<ref name="Ashley">{{cite book |first=W. J. |last=Ashley |title=Surveys: Historic and Economic |year=1900 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_hh8aAAAAYAAJ }}</ref>{{rp|pp=270–71}} The Whigs were opposed to the pro-French policies of the Stuart kings Charles II and James II as they believed that such an alliance with the Catholic [[absolute monarchy]] of France endangered liberty and Protestantism. The Whigs claimed that trade with France was bad for England and developed an economic theory of overbalance, that is a deficit of trade with France was bad because it would enrich France at England's expense.<ref name="Ashley" />{{rp|pp=270–74}}

In 1678, the Whigs passed the [[Prohibition of 1678]] that banned certain French goods from being imported into England. The economic historian [[William Ashley (economic historian)|William Ashley]] claimed that this Act witnessed the "real starting-point in the history of Whig policy in the matter of trade".<ref name="Ashley" />{{rp|271}} It was repealed upon the accession of James II by a Tory-dominated House of Commons but upon the accession of William III in 1688 a new [[Trade with France Act 1688|Act]] was passed that prohibited the importation of French goods.<ref name="Ashley" />{{rp|283}} In 1704, the Whigs passed the [[Trade with France Act 1704|Trade with France Act]] that renewed protectionism against France. In 1710, Queen Anne appointed the predominantly Tory [[Harley Ministry]], which favoured free trade. When the Tory minister Lord Bolingbroke proposed a commercial treaty with France in 1713 that would have led to freer trade, the Whigs were vehemently against it and it had to be abandoned.<ref name="Ashley" />{{rp|pp=271, 299}}

In 1786, Pitt's government negotiated the [[Eden Agreement]], a commercial treaty with France which led to freer trade between the two countries. All of the Whig leaders attacked this on traditional Whig anti-French and protectionist grounds. Fox claimed that France was England's natural enemy and that it was only at Britain's expense that she could grow. [[Edmund Burke]], [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan|Richard Sheridan]], [[William Windham]] and [[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Charles Grey]] all spoke out against the trade agreement on the same grounds.<ref>{{cite book |first=Henry Offley |last=Wakeman |title=Charles James Fox |location=London |publisher=Gibbings and Company |year=1909 |page=127 |oclc=679500221 }}</ref>

Ashley claimed that "[t]he traditional policy of the Whig party from before the Revolution [of 1688] down to the time of Fox was an extreme form of Protectionism".<ref>{{cite book |first=W. J. |last=Ashley |title=The Tariff Problem |location=London |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |page=21 |isbn=0-415-19467-9 }}</ref> The Whigs' protectionism of this period is today increasingly cited with approval by heterodox economists such as [[Ha-Joon Chang]], who wish to challenge contemporary prevailing free trade orthodoxies via precedents from the past.<ref>{{Cite book |title=23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism |author=Ha-Joon Chang |year=2010 |publisher=Allen Lane |location=London |page=70 |isbn=978-1-84614-328-1 }}</ref>

Later on, several members from the Whig party came to oppose the protectionism of the [[Corn Laws]], but trade restrictions were not repealed even after the Whigs returned to power in the 1830s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The 1815–46 Corn Laws: your guide to the crisis and why they were repealed |url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/corn-laws-guide-what-impact-why-repealed-benefit/ |access-date=2022-05-02 |website=History Extra |language=en}}</ref>