Of all the activities of the most neglected century in English History, England's tradce has received the least attention in proportion to its importance. It was obviously in the course of the later Middle Ages, and more particularly in the fifteenth century, that there took place the great transformation from medieval England, isolated and intensely local, to the England of the Tudor and Stuart age, with its world-wide connections and imperial designs. It was during the same period that most of the forms of international trade characteristic of the Middle Ages were replaced by new methods of commercial organization and regulation, national in scope and at times definitely nationalistic in object, and that a marked movement towards capitalist methods and principles took place in the sphere of domestic trade. Yet little has been written concerning English trade in this period.
First published in 1933, this classic volume goes a long way to fills this gap superbly. There is an abundance of material, and the writers have compiled a statistical analysis of the Enrolled Customs Account from 1377-1482, which provides an essential measure of the nature, volume, and movement of English foreign commerce during the period.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The economic and social problems of modern Scotland are at the centre of current debate about regional economic growth, social improvement and environmental rehabilitation. In this book, as relevant today as when it was first published in 1975, Anthony Slaven argues that the extent and causes of these problems are frequently underestimated, thus making development policies less than fully effective.
The major economic and social weaknesses of the west of Scotland are shown to be rooted in the regions former strengths. The author demonstrates how, although the region and its people have resisted change, a thriving and self reliant nineteenth-century economy, based on local resources and manpower, has given way in the present century to vanishing skills and products, unemployment and social deprivation. Since 1945 economic and social planning has helped to improve the situation, although many difficulties remain.
Seen in the historical perspective provided by this revealing study, the present industrial problems of the west of Scotland, and their remedies, become clearer. Mr Slaven argues that the older industries deserve more help, for without this, he believes, the ineffectiveness of development policies is likely to be perpetuated.
This book was first published in 1975.

This book was first published in 1961.

For over a hundred years the Japanese have looked to the West for ideas, institutions and technology that would help them achieve their goal of 'national wealth and strength'. In this book a distinguished historian of Japan discusses Japan's 'cultural borrowing' from America and Europe. W. G. Beasley focuses on the mid-nineteenth century, when Japan's rulers dispatched diplomatic missions to the West to discover what Japan needed to learn, sent students abroad to assimilate information and invited foreign experts to Japan to help put the knowledge to practical use. Beasley examines the origins of the decision to initiate direct study of the West at a time when western countries counted as 'barbarian' by Confucian standards. Drawing on many colourful letters, diaries, memoirs and reports, he describes the missions sent overseas in 1860 and 1862, in 1865-1867 and in the years after 1868, in particular the prestigious embassy led by Iwakura in 1871-1873. The book also tells the story of the several hundred students who went overseas in this period. It concludes by assessing the impact of the encounters on the subsequent development of Japan, first by examining the later careers of the travellers and the influence they exercised (they included no fewer than six prime ministers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), and then by considering the nature of the ideas they brought home.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book was first published in 1966. It was surprising that so small and so remote a country as Switzerland should have played such an important part in the industrial revolution on the Continent in the nineteenth century. A lack of natural resources and basic raw materials and population of 1,687,000 in 1817, faraway trade ports, and until 1848 no real central government with the administrative structure to support expansion of manufacturers. However, the people were hardworking, thrifty and high standards of workmanship; and had good relations with France and Germany, which saw the watchmakers, silkweavers and chocolate crafters start to thrive. Johann Conrad Fischer was typical of the entrepreneurs who laid the foundations of Switzerland's prosperity with his steelworks.

These six papers were originally delivered to a conference at Sheffield University in 1969 and represent an overview of a research project led by Professor Pollard, which aimed to construct a series of annual figures of capital formation for the Industrial Revolution in Britain - both in aggregate and broken down into main sectors. Each paper is accompanied by a summary of the discussion which followed.

The problems encountered in such an undertaking are examined, a major one being definition: what to include in the term 'capital', how to measure or isolate expenditure under that heading, and how to deal with changes which have made the definitions and practices of present-day national income estimates inapplicable to earlier centuries. Sources are also examined in depth as statistical information is not only uncertain and often unreliable, but of different value and completeness for different sectors of the economy.

This book was first published in 1971.

First Published in 2005. This book is an attempt by a layman to explain to other laymen the purposes and processes of industrial assurance, an institution which exercises a far-reaching influence upon the life of the community, and in which for that reason the community, through its political organs of Parliament and administration, has long taken an inquisitive, critical, and entirely proper interest. This will be of interest to those studying the long experience which will enable its standards to be still further raised and those vested in its professional practitioners.

First Published in 2005. A history of the English Corn Laws 1660-1846 is part of the studies in Economic and Social History series and looks at how the Corn Laws regulated the internal trade, exportation and importation and market development from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries.

This book was first published in 1967. This volume explores the history of the British iron and steel industry from 1760, tracking its development, relationship with the British economy, regional hubs, technological developments and the final triumph of steel over iron.

Peter Mathiass subject is the creation in late eighteenth-century England of the industrial system and thereby the present world. That unique conjuncture poses the sharpest questions about the nature of industrialization, social change and historical explanation, issues that are his principal scholarly concern. For many readers these collected studies will be as indispensable as the authors general introduction, The First Industrial Nation, whether for the richness of their material or the freedom and subtlety of his analysis.
These fascinating essays are divided into two groups: general themes, the uniqueness in Europe of the industrial revolution, capital formation, taxation, the growth of skills, science and technical change, leisure and wages, diagnoses of poverty; and topics, the social structure, the industrialization of brewing, coinage, agriculture and the drink industries, advances in public health and the armed forces, British and American public finance in the War of Independence, Dr Johnsonand the business world.
This book was first published in 1979.

First Published in 2005. The Irish Report is a scarce document, known to comparatively few economists. This reprint of the Report and of portions of the Minutes of Evidence, set against the historical background, will not only be of interest to the student of monetary theory and of monetary history, but also help to give perspective on some present-day problems of monetary and exchange policy, particularly in the countries of the sterling area. The Irish Report was frequently cited in the pamphlet literature of the time, and in Parliamentary debate, and discussed in detail the exchange situation between Ireland and England.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2005. In the decade of the sixties, which brought so many disappointments to the British people, one signal achievement stands out: the revival of "The City"-London's financial district-as a major centre of international finance. To work in the City now seems to hold the promise of moving up fast, not merely to good pay and good social standing but to an early share of responsibility. George Lewis French Bolton was born in 1900 and started work in the City before he was seventeen. This volume is a collection of works by Sir George Bolton on the revival of the City from 1957 to 1970.

First Published in 2005. This book has been written as an outline history of the development of Japanese business. A good deal of literature exists on some aspects, and some periods, but this is the first attempt to follow the entire course from the Tokugawa period to the present, and to analyse the salient features from the vantage point of modernisation. A separate section in each chapter deals exclusively with the value problem and the impact of values on business and economic development. The Glossary gives an explanation of Japanese terms that are used in the text.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

When it appeared in 1923, John Lords Capital and Steam Power 17501800 was the first book to be based on the voluminous Boultori and Watt papers in Birmingham since the hey-day of Samuel Smiles.
Although Lords conclusions have been modified and corrected on various points, this book still remains the best short account of the significance of this classic engineering partnership which bulks so large in the history of technology and of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. "Mr. Lords Capital and Steam Power 17501800 is an important contribution to economic history His introductory sketch of economic conditions from 1700 to 1750 and his concluding summary of the main results of the developments which he has described, without having the same novelty as his central theme, are scholarly and intelligent."
R. H. Tawney, Economica, February, 1924
"His study of the application of steam to industry is a useful piece of research."
T. S. Ashton, The Economic Journal, December, 1924

First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

A great deal has been talked about the economic recovery of Western Germany since the Second World War. It is know htat this recovery was accompanied by the return of the Federal Republic to the markets of the world. Not so much is know abotu the details - about the work effected through the opitimism of the Minister for Economics, Professor Ludwig Erhard.
In this book, the minister himself speaks. A detailed description is given of the stages by which first the Bizone, and then the Federal Republic, has effected the remarkable comeback which has created keen interest and concern. The book goes into the full detail which might be expected from on who is in charge of the entire machinery. The description of the way in which Government policy was employed to stimulate a free market economy is of great technical interest. Equally important is the detailed description of the way in which every nook and cranny is exploited to give the Federal Republic a foothold in foreign markets. No opportunity is neglected, from the fostering of the most ambitious long-term capital development schemes to the publication of day-to-day reports on trade openings. This book was first published in 1954.

First published in 1966, this revealing study looks closely into the lives of the men, women and children working in mines, workshops, factories and farms during the industrial revolution. It investigates the inventors whose new machines made the industrial revolution possible, and reflects on the new type of employer whose enterprise and energy in linking machine and labour power formed a new society.
Where possible, contemporary accounts, letters, diaries and reports have been used so that the words of those living through this remarkable time can be heard - the words and thoughts of masters, workpeople, apprentice children, 'improving landlords' and farm labourers illuminate the prevailing attitudes of the period. An introductory chapter outlines previous methods of living and working and shows the first movements towards the industrial revolution.
Describing successes and failures, lives of impoverishment and hardship, fortunes made and, sometimes, lost, and the effects of the new society, this enlightening study investigates how early struggles to cope with almost overwhelming problems are now seen as the beginnings of the comparatively comfortable conditions we benefit from today.

The first volume in a new series examines German foreign policy towards Eastern Europe from 1890 to 1960, through a narrower focus on its trade policy actions with Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Imperial Russia/Soviet Union.

Although the Anti-Corn Law league played a most important part in the politics of the 1840's, there is no modern study of its activities and organization. Based on several years work on the original sources, as well as papers belonging to George Wilson, President of the League for most of its life, this book sheds light on the internal history and organization of the League.

Written from a political perspective, Dr McCord describes the origin, organization and activities of the League, together with its effect on the contemporary political scene, and as such, fills an important gap in our knowledge of the political history of early Victorian England. At the same time, the book provides an analysis of an unusually well-documented political pressure group, making it a most welcome addition to literature for historians and economic historians, as well as students of political science.

This book was first published in 1958.

After a century and a half of efforts at constructing arrangements and rules for international monetary interaction, present-day national authorities do not seem to have come much closer to achieving the aim of enduring exchange rate stability combined with a good macroeconomic performance. A distinguished group of economists and economic historians offers new insights into the working of the most important of such experiences, including nineteenth century bimetallism, the 'classical' gold standard, Bretton Woods and the European Monetary System.