... sole advantage the Britain gained from her imperial endeavours would be to gravely underestimate the value of the empire. The most obvious example of the benefits the empire delivered to the mother country are visible in the form of the wealth it supplied that was necessary for the continuation of the wars against France from 1793 to 1815. The conflict had quickly developed into total war in a modern sense. Sustained and effective resistance to France required the greatest ever mobilisation of Britain's manpower and financial resources. Over a tenth of Britain's adult males were drafted into the armed services during the war, and even then the army and navy constantly demanded more. By 1810 there were 145,000 sailors, 31,000 marines and 300,000 regular soldiers under arms. The total cost of the war has been estimated at just over one billion pounds, of which 830 million pounds was consumed by the ...

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