The British Political System c1783

William Pitt was the youngest British Prime Minister who at age 24 came into office in 1783-1801 and 1804-1806. His father was William Pitt the Earl of Chatham and a previous PM. Some of his achievements include an act that gave the government control over the East India Trading Company and therefore control over India he also united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland. 

Economically he helped the country with his skills for finance, he negotiated new tariffs with France and he targeted smuggling which was a huge loss of tariffs and illegal goods. Economically, Pitt was faced with huge problems such as a national debt that was twenty times the annual revenue and national bankruptcy was a very strong possibility. To combat this he introduced taxes that were mainly focused on goods that the rich owned. He also aimed to reduce government spending significantly in the belief that government activities should be regulated by paid professionals. The effects of his economic policies included confidence being restored in the £, national debt worries ended, Anglo-American trade quadrupled and later managed to subsidise European armies to fight France. However most of his successful work was undone by the lengthy French wars which again drove England near to bankruptcy and severe international debt.  

Politically he also had significant achievements such as; recognising Americas independence with the Peace of Versailles, he also identified 30 'rotten boroughs' (areas not represented in Parliament as their land owner controls the MP and the voters) and tried to eradicate them. 

Pitt was supported in his term by King George III who pushed for many of Pitts political policies through the Kings court. George was also liked by the public as he had both a respectable reign but also a successful personal life, remaining loyal to his wife and bringing up his children well. His mental deteriorated towards the end of his reign leading to many problems with his grasp of power. His power in Britain wasn't as controlling as previous monarchs due to the Glorious Revolution where Parliament supporters overthrew the current monarch to introduce a constitutional monarchy where power was divided between monarch and Parliament. The American War of Independence occurred towards the end of his reign where Britain lost 13 of its colonies in the US. Although the government was criticised of the way they ran the war Pitt did manage to drastically improve the situation. His economic policies restored trade with the US to the levels before the war and doubled trade and connections with the rest of Europe eventually leaving Britain in a better economic state than before the war, so much so that Britain could sustain multiple armies to fight in France.

The state of Britain politically at this time was greatly argued about as it was not clear that Britain was entirely a democratic nation. Some people argue that it was a democratic state as there was a system that allowed people to vote for people in Parliament as well as the Constitutional Monarchy that meant the crown no longer had unrestricted power and instead shared it with the government. However there were also arguments that Britain was not a democratic nation, mainly it was said not to be because the amount of people who actually had the vote was under 10% of the population. This also meant the system was extremely corrupt as locals frequently bribed or threatened the people in their area who could vote, especially in places such as Rotten Boroughs.