As the previous two chapters have demonstrated, British interests in the long eighteenth century were greatly influenced by warfare that was occurring in Europe and throughout the world. These wars impacted territorial and commercial concerns, considerations which were reflected in the thanksgiving-day sermons. Among the issues discussed were the effects of war (and peace) on trade and domestic industry, as well as the development of a more global outlook for Britons. The present chapter will explore how the sermons presented and discussed commercial and imperial interests. Though preachers’ passing mentions of such issues could not fully elaborate the complexities of the nation's wide-ranging economic and expansionary policies, they do demonstrate that these matters were important considerations within which thanksgiving-day sermons framed their discussions of the purposes and implications of events, circumstances, and British actions.

The resilience of British trade

When outlining the costs of war for Britain, many thanksgiving-day preachers commented on how it inhibited trade. However, their sermons also discussed the tenacity of British commerce during wartime, which was often expressed in terms of the strength of the British economy during difficult times, the comparison of British trade to that of its enemies, and the positive influences of military success. Despite apprehension over, and complaints about, possible negative commercial effects of war, the ability of the British economy to withstand and even thrive in such circumstances was also noted. Preachers considered these issues in the context of stability and providing assurance, constructing a picture of British commercial activity their audiences could find comfort and take confidence in. Preaching to Gray's Inn in 1691, George Stanhope noted that, even during the current war, ‘we have seen safe… arrivals of rich Cargoes from abroad;… we are not reduced to the last shifts of Poverty and Exile,… but, while other Countries have been the Unhappy Scenes of Violence, Ours… continues calm and composed’. A decade later, Ralph Lambert called on his audience to ‘reflect on the vast plenty and abundance, that we enjoy, after the expence of a Ten Years War… An abundance, in which no other Nation can pretend to vie with us; no, not even our Allies of Holland, whose Riches make so mighty a Noise, and so great a Figure in the World.’