HIST 383 Chapter Notes - Chapter reading: Thomas Coram, Childrens Hospital, Mercantilism
Document Summary
Protestantism provided the majority of britons with a framework for their lives. It shaped their interpretation of the past and enabled them to make sense of the present. If religion underpinned national identity here as in so many other states - it was also the case that an active commitment to the nation was often intimately bound up with an element of self interest. National ideology is effective where it reflects the interests of groups to which it makes its appeal, or contains at least in part of the kind of programme which is close to their interests. One in every five famous in 18th century britain drew its livelihood from trade and distribution, and this was on top of farmers and manufacturers who relied on domestic and external trading networks for their profits. The hospital"s aim was mercantilist as well as humanitarian: to rescue young lives that would otherwise be wasted and render them useful to the state.
