Free Trade and The Great Exhibition of 1851

Voiceover

Presenter(s)

Kristine Kohlmeier

Abstract or Description

Visitors to London in May through October 1851 most likely would have found themselves greeted by a bustling city swelled to nearly three times its regular size. A new building aptly named the Crystal Palace located in Hyde Park housed over 13,000 exhibits ranging from priceless art to room-sized machinery. Known colloquially as the Great Exhibition and formally as the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, it would become the first in a long line of world’s fairs. The Great Exhibition stood in contrast to many of the exhibitions that preceded it. Exhibitors were accepted from all over the world and from a multitude of commercial sectors. It offered Victorians of every class and overseas visitors a look into a world not usually open to them. Machinery and finished goods from across Europe and raw goods from a number of British colonies were all showcased in one place celebrating modern economic success.

The road to the Great Exhibition was not a predetermined one. Only a few years before in 1845, a Great Exhibition of British goods failed before an “indifferent” public and “lukewarm” businessmen. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was differentiated by the international competition opened up by the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 and the Navigation Act of 1849, which introduced free global markets. These laws were ushered in by voting reform, which took place in 1832, expanding the vote to Victorian middle-class men. In this way, the Great Exhibition was mobilized by the growing agency of the middle class in British political and economic life. The Great Exhibition was a culmination of change, opening its doors to the corners of the globe unlike its stunted and largely forgotten protectionist counterpart.