A Concise Economic History of Britain

Professor Court's independent sequel to Sir John Clapham's Concise Economic History of Britain to 1750 investigates the economic life of Britain between 1750 and the onset of war in 1939. He describes the growth of the first industrial state, its days of prosperity and the persistent grimmer features. The first part, 'The Growth of an Industrial State', has chapters on population, agriculture, industrial innovation, transport and overseas trade; the instability of the economy; the state and foreign balance; social setting and the influence of war. The second part, 'The Victorian Economy and After', describes economic life in the Victorian age to 1880; the vicissitudes of an industrial state; industry and the social order; the origins of the welfare state; Britain as the leader of the world's economy, and the challenge to that leadership between 1880 and 1939. Britain's life is still deeply affected for good and ill by the process Professor Court describes.