in 1880, chamberlain became the president of the board of trade, the government minister working to improve trade. he made laws to help other cities to buy private companies, as he had done in birmingham. he worked to make rents cheaper in ireland, which was a british colony. at that time, many people believed that ireland should have its own parliament, but many other people, including chamberlain strongly disagreed. chamberlain worked to help trade unions, but warned against socialism, saying that it would bring class war.