The Venezuela Crisis of 1895 broke out when Britain and Venezuela disputed the boundary between the nation of Venezuela and British Guiana, a British colony. President Grover Cleveland and Secretary of State Richard Olney demanded international arbitration. The tribunal in 1899 awarded the bulk of the disputed territory to British Guiana. By standing with a Latin American nation against the encroachment of the British Empire, the US improved relations with the Latin Americans, and the cordial manner of the procedure improved diplomatic relations with Britain.The Olney-Pauncefote Treaty of 1897 was a proposed treaty between the United States and Britain in 1897 that required arbitration of major disputes.  Despite wide public and elite support, the treaty was rejected by the U.S. Senate, which was jealous of its prerogatives, and never went into effect.Arbitration was used to settle the dispute over the boundary between Alaska and Canada, but the Canadians felt betrayed by the result. The Alaska Purchase of 1867 drew the boundary between Canada and Alaska in ambiguous fashion. With the gold rush into the Yukon in 1898, miners had to enter through Alaska and Canada wanted the boundary redrawn to obtain its own seaport. Canada rejected the American offer of a long-term lease on an American port. The issue went to arbitration and the Alaska boundary dispute was finally resolved by an arbitration in 1903. The decision favoured the US when the British judge sided with the three American judges against the two Canadian judges on the arbitration panel. Canadian public opinion was outraged that their interests were sacrificed by London for the benefit of British-American harmony.
Relations were chilly during the 1860s as Americans resented British and Canadian roles during the Civil War.  After the war American authorities looked the other way as Irish "Fenians" plotted and even attempted an invasion of Canada.  The Fenians proved a failure but Irish American politicians, a growing power in the Democratic Party demanded more independence for Ireland and made anti-British rhetoric—called "twisting the lion's tail"—a staple of election campaign appeals to the Irish vote.Britain persisted in its free trade policy even as its major rivals, the US and Germany, turned to high tariffs (as did Canada). American heavy industry grew faster than Britain, and by the 1890s was crowding British machinery and other products out of the world market.  London, however, remained the world's financial center, even as much of its investment was directed toward American railways. The Americans remained far behind the British in international shipping and insurance.The American "invasion" of the British home market demanded a response.  Tariffs, although increasingly under consideration, were not imposed until the 1930s. Therefore, British businessmen were obliged to lose their market or else rethink and modernize their operations. The boot and shoe industry faced increasing imports of American footwear; Americans took over the market for shoe machinery. British companies realized they had to meet the competition so they re-examined their traditional methods of work, labor utilization, and industrial relations, and to rethink how to market footwear in terms of the demand for fashion.
In the American Civil War a major Confederate goal was to win recognition from Britain and France, which it expected would lead them to war with the US and enable the Confederacy to win independence. Because of the astute American diplomacy, no nation ever recognized the Confederacy and war with Britain was averted. Nevertheless, there was considerable British sentiment in favor of weakening the US by helping the South win. At the beginning of the war Britain issued a proclamation of neutrality. The Confederate States of America had assumed all along that Britain would surely enter the war to protect its vital supply of cotton. This "King Cotton" argument was one reason the Confederates felt confident in the first place about going to war, but the Southerners had never consulted the Europeans and were tardy in sending diplomats. Even before the fighting began in April 1861 Confederate citizens (acting without government authority) cut off cotton shipments in an effort to exert cotton diplomacy. It failed because Britain had warehouses filled with cotton, whose value was soaring; not until 1862 did shortages become acute.The Trent Affair in late 1861 nearly caused a war. A warship of the U.S. Navy stopped the British civilian vessel RMS Trent and took off two Confederate diplomats, James Murray Mason and John Slidell. Britain prepared for war and demanded their immediate release. President Lincoln released the diplomats and the episode ended quietly.Britain realized that any recognition of an independent Confederacy would be treated as an act of war against the United States. The British economy was heavily reliant on trade with the United States, most notably cheap grain imports which in the event of war, would be cut off by the Americans. Indeed, the Americans would launch all-out naval war against the entire British merchant fleet.Despite outrage and intense American protests, London allowed the British-built CSS Alabama to leave port and become a commerce raider under the naval flag of the Confederacy. The war ended in 1865; arbitration settled the issue in 1871, with a payment of $15.5 million in gold for the damages caused.In January 1863 Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which was strongly supported by liberal elements in Britain. However the British government predicted it would create a race war and that intervention might be required on humanitarian grounds. There was no race war, however, and the declining capabilities of the Confederacy—such as loss of major ports and rivers—made its likelihood of success smaller and smaller.
課税基準を醸造に用いる壷数に応じて定めたことから、この名称が付いたとされている。鎌倉時代中期から酒屋が全国各地に広まるが、鎌倉幕府は酒が社会に害悪をもたらすとしてこれを禁じる沽酒の禁を出して厳しく取り締まった。これに対して京都朝廷は公領よりの収入減少の穴埋めとして酒屋の営業を許す代わりに課税を行おうとした。正和年間の新日吉社造営費用のために洛中などの酒屋に壷銭を課したのが最古の記録である。後に造酒正が徴収を担当するようになり、造酒正を務める押小路家がその役目にあたった。後醍醐天皇は元亨2年（1322年）以後、壷役の直轄化と通常課税化を図り、建武の新政の開始を機に五条頼元を造酒正に任命して押小路家の権限を取り上げようとしたが、政権の崩壊とともに失敗に終わり、押小路家が復権した。貞治年間の北朝において、年間200貫を朝廷に収めることを条件に押小路家に酒麹売課役（さけこうじうりかやく）として徴税権を与えられたが、検非違使をも動員して徴税を強行する造酒正と酒屋の座を支配下に置く延暦寺などの有力寺院との対立が生じることになった。一方鎌倉幕府は引き続きこの酒屋の禁止を続け、禁止対象である酒屋から課税する事にも否定的であったが、鎌倉幕府に代わって成立した室町幕府は財政基盤が弱かったためにその軍事力を背景に造酒正・有力寺院の対立に割ってはいる形で京都の酒屋から「酒屋役」を徴収するようになった。壷銭は定期的なものについては月ごとに年間12回徴収するのを原則として、他に臨時の課税が行われた。徴収に先立って壷数と営業状況を把握するために酒屋の実地調査が行われた。営業実態により、本役と半役（半公事）に分けられ、半役は本役の半額の課税がされた。なお、これに倣って地方でも壷銭が行われた。大和国の守護である興福寺が菩提山寺の醸造業に壷銭を課したとする記録がある。