Addison's Use of The Spectator to Influence
Opinions
During the eighteenth century the periodical joined its readership into a union of collective thoughts with the ability to influence the political, social and financial world around them. In the periodical Spectator No. 69, Joseph Addison creates a persona that reveals a new diverse society of merchants who created the Royal Exchange and who rivaled the powers of Parliament and past Monarchies over the British domains.
The persona "Mr. Spectator" declares that he is being completely captivated by the "mixing of several ministers of commerce"(2334), with the ability to communicate and create incredible financial transactions in the multi-national melting pot throughout Great Britain. Mr. Addison's persona relates how vast the wealth of merchants is that influenced the livelihood of Britain. The persona further implies that these powerful merchants create more financial wealth than the Royal Treasury controlled by "old kings"(2337).
Additionally, Mr. Spectator speaks of Great Britain's fragile state with nature because the climate and soil are not conducive to production of many natural products. The persona states that nature furnishes just the "bare necessities"(2336) in Great Britain and that most commodities of "richness" are supplied through the commerce created by the Exchange. This is a powerful statement that has great influence on the readers. The merchants and common man's desires include financial success and consumption of all the wonderful products that abound throughout the world, and should be enjoyed through the fruition of the Exchange.
The most influential remark made by this periodical infers that Great Britain's history included much strife as part of the process to increase and protect its domain. The persona quite explicitly explains that the traditional need to attain "additional territories"(2337) for the expansion of the British Empire can now be replaced by a new form of territory entitled "financial power" that was created by the trade between merchants and the Exchange.
.... (2013). Foreign Relations in the Gilded Age: A British Free-Trade Conspiracy? Diplomatic History, 37(2).
The setting is London in 1854, which is very different to anything we know today. Johnson’s description of this time and place makes it seem like a whole other world from the here and now....
to seek islands and countries in the west, east, and north in hopes of a British monopoly
Ernst, Joseph Albert. Money and politics in America, 1755–1775; a study in the Currency act of
Century. There were several key factors in Britain’s rapid growth as an international empire. Britain 's development at this time had an important international and military dimension. An empire based on sea power, commerce and naval dominance consolidated British overseas colonization and trade. Three key factors facilitated Britain’s rise to power, the first is warfare, the second is colonization and the third is trade.
Hunt, Margaret R. The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender, and Family in England, 1680-1780. London: University of California Press, 1996
Shields, David S. Oracles of Empire: Poetry, Politics, and Commerce in British America, 1690-1750. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990
Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion emanates the social and political upheaval caused by the war and depicts the transition into nineteenth century realism where class and wealth was considered extremely important in the social hierarchy. She explores the reactions to the newly diverse interactions between different social classes and although she was “no snob, she knew all about snobbery.” Therefore, she is able to realistically portray the views of upper class characters such as Sir Walter Elliot and contrast them to men who have earned their wealth, such as Captain Wentworth. Whilst Britain was involved with the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in the early nineteenth century, the navy had a profound involvement therefore this is not only reflected in Austen’s real life, but also in her novels. This alters the narrative in the novel as a whole as Austen depicts how wealth and being upper class is no longer limited to hereditory but can also be earned through professions such as being in the navy. As a result, the contrasts between the opinions and actions of the men who work for their wealth and the men who merely receive it from their family are profound.
Chesterfield, Lord. Lord Chesterfield's Letters (Oxford World's Classics). Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA, 2008. Print.
Dickens, Charles. The Uncommercial Traveler and Reprinted Pieces. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. Nearly 40 essays by Dickens originally collected in 1861 and subsequently expanded.
The setting for this novel was a constantly shifting one. Taking place during what seems to be the Late Industrial Revolution and the high of the British Empire, the era is portrayed amongst influential Englishmen, the value of the pound, the presence of steamers, railroads, ferries, and a European globe.
...asty from the complete end to Lancaster and York, changing England to become a very ambitious and vigorous superpower.
Darwin, John. 2011. BBC - History - British History in depth: Britain, the Commonwealth and the End of Empire, 3 March 2011. Accessed 11 April 2014. Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/endofempire_overview_01.shtml.
Throughout history, the British have been a nation of sailors and businessmen. With the dawn of the imperial era, money began to equal power, and the wealth of the British elevated them to the top of the world. As Sir Walter Raleigh said,
Both Shakespeare in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ and Marlowe in ‘Dr Faustus’ use the numerous outcomes from the events of trade in their plays to metaphorically depict a variety of different circumstances. The very concept of trade is used in all its forms to stretch the controversial and political themes and morals of each play as far out as possible. From this, we learn that trade isn't just a physical form of business, but a symbolic form of both human and spiritual communication, too.