Om episode
It was time for Disraeli to break through. Not yet to the top job: that, as Melbourne had predicted years before, would go to Stanley, now known as Derby. But Disraeli would land a big job in government, that of Chancellor of the Exchequer. Not an easy job for a man who was no financial expert. His major challenge was that he represented a political group opposed to the Repeal of the Corn Laws, just when Britain was at the top of its world leadership in economics, to which that repeal had contributed: the British had created a business environment that could benefit fully from free trade internationally (at least where it suited them). British success would be celebrated in a colossal show, the Great Exhibition, to be attended by millions, many of them taking advantage of the new mobility provided by the railway age. Meanwhile, Disraeli would be set the task of coming up with a budget in keeping with the times, but which would secure the support of people focused on the interests of the one group that had suffered most from the loss of tariff protection, the gentlemen farmers, with good landholdings though not as massive as those of the great noble families. Keeping them loyal mattered, since Derby and Disraeli's wing of the Conservatives was short of support (and of talent) after the business interests had deserted them to go with Peel. Illustration: The British contribution to the Great Exhibition, from Dickinson's Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851 (public domain) Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.