This chapter considers Burke’s most famous text in defence of party: Thoughts on the Cause of Present Discontent (1770). With political life having been essentially purged of Jacobitism, an unapologetic case for party was now possible. This party, posing as the Whig party, viewed itself as the protector of Britain’s Revolution Settlement and its mixed and balanced constitution in opposition to what was perceived as a revived Toryism supporting George III and his favourite Bute’s ‘court system’. Burke viewed men and measures as interlinked and believed that a party had to seek office and negotiate with the monarch as a corps. This was diametrically opposed to the earlier ‘not men, but measures’ slogan at the heart of John Brown’s writings and the Pittite patriot platform.

In the 1760s, an alternative vision of party emerged: Edmund Burke’s party of principle. This chapter considers the formation of Burke’s party, the Rockingham Whigs, in the context of George III’s accession to the throne and the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War. Burke’s close friend and writing collaborator William Burke introduced him to the circle of the Marquess of Rockingham, and when Rockingham took office as First Lord of the Treasury in July 1765, Burke became his private secretary. At the end of that year, Burke was elected as MP for Wendover and in the following years he emerged as the leading publicist of the Rockingham Whigs. This chapter considers Burke’s early writings in service of his party, especially his understudied Observations on a Late State of the Nation (1769).

Chapter 6 explores Burke’s early views and legislative activities on foreign trade by analyzing Account of the European Settlements in America, which he coauthored with Will Burke. I explain how the Account offered some of the earliest glimpses into Burke’s conception of imperial political economy: the British Empire possessed the right to rule its colonial possessions, but its governance should be selective in regulating their internal affairs. Furthermore, the Account criticized the idea that the accumulation of gold was the best means to opulence, thereby challenging a core tenet of mercantilism. More important, the Account stressed that the character and fortitude of the English people would enable Britain to counter the imperial threat of its rival, France. In addition, Chapter 6 explores Burke’s leading parliamentary role in orchestrating the passage of the Free Port Act of 1766, which created six new free trade ports in the West Indies. Such legislative efforts showed that he was a champion of merchants and commercial liberty early on in his career in the House of Commons.