Geoffrey Cadogan

Geoffrey Cadogan was the Prime Minister of Great Britain in the late 1870s and early 1880s. Although Sobel does not specifically say so, it is likely that Cadogan was the leader of the Tory Party.

After the outbreak of the Franco-German War in the late autumn of 1878, Cadogan responded by ordering a mobilization of the British army, and doubled the naval appropriation for 1879. The increased taxes that resulted, along with rising interest rates and fears of being drawn into the war, led to sharply decreased investment in the Confederation of North America. Beginning in early 1879, British bankers began to call in their loans in the C.N.A., and new investment fell sharply. This touched off the Great Depression, a major economic slump that soon spread from North America to Europe, and combined with the wave of revolutionary fervor from the French Revolution to bring about the social upheavals of the Bloody Eighties.

In response to the growing economic and social crises, Cadogan joined with North American Governor-General John McDowell to hold the First Imperial Conference in London in 1881 to discuss common problems among the nations of the British Empire. The participants at the conference agreed to maintain free trade between the member nations; affirmed their loyalty to Queen Victoria; establish the Imperial Monetary Fund; and initiated discussions on the creation of a common defense force. A Second Imperial Conference was held in New York City the following year which increased the lending power of the I.M.F.

Sobel does not say when Cadogan's government ended, but by 1885 an electoral victory by the Whig Party brought Richard Cross to power as Prime Minister.