This week, Brexiteers around the country are celebrating a new future for Britain – one that does not belong to a confined Europe but “to the entire world”. After three years of political chaos and uncertainty, Boris Johnson has finally delivered on his promise to “get Brexit done” and now the UK prepares to go back to its roots as a “great and global free-trading country”. The Prime Minister is eager to strike bilateral free trade agreements – starting with the EU, the US and Japan.

Britain went through a similar process of reshaping its relationship with the world when it repealed the controversial Corn Laws and embraced the idea of free trade in 1846.

Thanks to that, the country entered a period of relative affluence for most, but more dramatically, the UK set a radically new path by becoming the first major economy to adopt unilateral global free trade.

At the beginning of the Thirties, though, Britain had to deal with the Great Depression and the national government under Former Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald had started considering import tariffs – a policy supported by manufacturing.

His protectionist views were contrasted by former Liberal Party Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who issued a brilliant defence of free trade in 1931.

Addressing the nation, Mr Lloyd George said: “No human system is perfect, but the system of free ports with all its faults has built up for us the greatest international trade in the world.

“The greatest shipping in the world.

“The greatest aggregation of ports in the world.

“The greatest export of manufactured goods per head of the population in the whole world.

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“We are the richest country in Europe.

“We pay the highest wages of any country in Europe except Denmark, which is also free trade.

“We have the lowest cost of living of any country in the world.”

Referring to the 1931 general election, he added: “The real aim of this election has been very cunningly concealed in the faults of the Union Jack.

“Its purpose is to convert this country into a mere copy of protectionist Germany, with every single commodity taxed heavily at the ports – including the good of the people.

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“I hope they will not rush in this revolutionary change, which may well be irretrievable.

“The real purpose of the advocates of this change is to divert the attention of the people from the right remedies.”

Despite his warning, the 1931 general election led to landslide victory for candidates supporting the National Government.

Mr MacDonald restored his government and Britain ended a long period of commitment to free trade the following year, with the enactment of the Import Duties Act in February 1932.

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