The British political system c1783 and William Pitt

 Democracy and structure- Britain was for it's time a very liberal country. This was seen as their was a religous tolerance with a free press. The Franchise ( the people that could vote) was very limited to only three percent of the population could vote as you had to be a man with land and money and in some cases you had to be a potwalloper.

The British constitution is broken down into three parts the Monarchy, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. By 1783 the King ( George III)  could not interfere with much legislation which was limited by the glorious revolution of 1689 the bill of rights. The king still had power to veto legislation. The House of Lords debated like the house of Commons and had the power to block measures from the House of Commons.  The House of Commons was full of wealth MPs and only 214,000 people out of 8 million could vote making the electorate very small.

The America revolutionary war causes unemployment to fall as people joined the army and wartime industries increased like the textile industries even though it caused the national debt to rise. Also the war caused Britain to double it's trade with Europe by 1792 and USA trade rose back to the same level in 1785.  The war also led to people demanding constitutional reform as people were annoyed that rich people would let the government pass anything also wealthy people were annoyed as it caused a lot of trade to be lost from losing the war. This lead to the Association movement which demanded the removing of the king from government and the expansion of the vote. This died down by because of the 1780 Gordon riots which caused destruction and death.  Overall Britain's power in Europe was still holding strong to play a key role in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

William Pitt-

•  He became the youngest Prime Minister in British history at the age of 24 in 1783.
• He suggested that there should be more representation for areas that have high population like |Manchester have an MP which it already did not have where as Suffolk which had a population of around 30 had two MPs but this failed to go through.
• He also created the Acts of the Union in 1800 which saw the unification of Great Britain and Ireland.
• He created the sinking fund which was to set aside 1 million pounds  every year to pay the national debt which was 213 million. By doing this  he reduce the national debt by 10 million pounds between 1784 to 1793.
• Also he cut tariffs to let honest trade thrive.
• He established an Audit office which was ran by independent experts to oversee public expenditure and thus curb corruption.
• He set up central stationary department to supply public departments instead of purchasing high cost goods from so called  'friendly suppliers'.
• He created a new budgeting system by taking estimates of expenditure from each government department and drawing up parallel tax proposals which this system is still in place. 
• Government loans were raised by public tender rather than private ones where ministers allowed their friends to raise loans at high interest rates.
• He introduced the income tax in 1798. This was to pay for the revolutionary war which in the first year he managed to raise 6 million pounds which was 4 million off  his target. This was very unpopular by the upper class.
• He also increased taxes on other assets like horses and windows. This was also extremely unpopular as it was seen as a tax on light.
• Created a free trade treaty with France in 1786. The problem with this is that this fell through.
• He reorganised the cabinet and established the PM's office as being the most important.