Foreigner kings as local kingmakers: how the ‘unusual’ marginalization of conservative political groups occurred in pre-Industrial Revolution Britain
探讨工业革命前英国现代经济增长如何发生，聚焦联盟政治中保守集团被边缘化的异常现象，发现外国君主（荷兰与汉诺威）基于自身安全需求选择盟友，导致托利党长期失势、辉格党与王权结盟，从而为商业利益扫清政治障碍。
Abstract Building on the Hodgson–Mokyr debate in this journal (Volume 18, Issue 1, 2022), this article discusses how modern economic growth occurred in pre-Industrial Revolution Britain, with a particular focus on coalition politics and the marginalization of conservative political groups – vetoers to change. Such political marginalization was unusual before the 19th century, when monarchs had substantial political power and land-based conservative groups were their main political allies. This article finds the source of the English exceptionalism in the unique system of non-imperial personal union that Britain then had with the Dutch Republic and Hanover. Under this system, foreigner monarchs chose their local ally in Britain based on the security needs of their home states. It created a significant disadvantage to the Tories, the incumbent conservative groups, while providing a window of opportunity for the Whigs, the opposition group supported by new commercial interests, to form a coalition with the Crown. The long absence of the Tories from power resulted in the incorporation of their constituencies into the Whig-led regime, making the traditional economic interests the regime's ‘junior partners’, instead of formidable political competitors to the new commercial interests, which was the case before and elsewhere at that time.