Profound Changes took place in British Agriculture between 1875 and 1914. After the prosperous years of the mid-nineteenth century came a period of difficulty for landowners and farmers, with falling prices, lower rents and untenanted farms. Previously attributed to bad seasons and increased food imports, this book questions whether the unexpected depression was rather the evolutionary upheaval of a system forced reluctantly into change.
Undoubtedly there was a crisis, in these decades farming ceased to be Britain's major industry; no longer able to supply all her own food, the country came to depend increasingly upon imports. Methods changed, cereal production yielding pre-eminence to pastoral farming. In recent years scholars have challenged traditional interpretations of the crisis, seeking a wider range of causes, characteristics and consequences. It has come to be seen as a phenomenon of change as much as of decay. This book brings together different views of the depression, ranging from contemporary evaluations to recent regional and econometric studies which stress its spatial and developmental character. Originally published in 1973, these eight contributions provide a survey of changing approaches to one of the major economic crises in modern history.

The decline of Venice remains one of the classic episodes in the economic development of modern Europe. Its contrasts are familiar enough: the wealthiest commercial power in fifteenth-century Europe, the strongest western colonial power in the eastern Mediterranean, found its principal fame three centuries later in carnival and the arts. This metamorphosis from commercial hegemony to fashionable pleasure and landed wealth was, however, a complex process. It resulted not so much from the Portuguese voyages of discovery at the beginning of the sixteenth century as from increasing Dutch adn English competition at its end, and from industrial competition chiefly from beyond the Mediterranean.
Several of the Articles Dr Pullan has chosen to illustrate these changes are made available in English for the first time, and two have been revised for this book. Four deal with the fortunes of entrepot trade and shipbuilding, which had furnished the basis of Venetian wealth adn influence in the Middle Ages; four others expamine the new fields of enterprise which Venice explored in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and which helped to compensate for the decline in traditional activities. This classic book was first published in 1968.

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.

First published in 1967, this superb collection of essays on trade in the Middle Ages has been a major contribution to modern medieval studies. Professor Carus-Wilson examines:

* fifteenth-century Bristol
* trade with Iceland
* the Merchant Adventurers of London
* the thirteenth-century cloth industry (with its highly developed capitalist system)
* the export of English woollen cloth
* the wine trade.

Each paper is firmly rooted in original research and contemporary sources such as customs returns and company minutes, and, in addition, her expose of the dubious accuracy of Aulnage accounts is widely recognised as a classic.

This book presents a detailed account of the co-operative practice of agriculture in medieval England, shedding much light on how medieval villagers governed their own affairs. During this period co-operation was essential in ploughing, sowing and reaping, with communal control of the pasturing of the fallow and stubble. These practices were set out in customary by-laws which were agreed to by common consent and villages themselves were greatly involved with their enactment and enforcement.

In the course of time, many of the by-laws were put into writing. Professor Ault has travelled extensively throughout England collecting and researching these agrarian ordinances and translating them into modern English. Since it was first published in 1972 this analysis has provided new insight into the organizational structure and governance of medieval villages in England and is essential reading for all those interested in the history of the Middle Ages.

First published in 2005. This original study the author writing in 1936 has tried to sketch the character and general movement of the economic and social evolution of Western Europe from the end of the Roman Empire to the middle of the fifteenth century.

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

The Worshipful Company of Weavers, the oldest of all the London Livery Companies, can trace its origins to a twelfth-century craft guild. Largely based upon original records never before studied in depth, this authorized history of the company covers the period from the end of the reign of Elizabeth I to modern times.
Alfred Plummer presents a portrait of the London Hand-loom weavers in their historical setting, living strenuous lives in an industry which was once essential but has now disappeared. He describes many fascinating aspects of the Company's 'eventful history', from the numbers of apprentices, to their parents and places of origin, the attitude towards the admission of women and the enlistment by the Weaver's Company of the powerful pen of Daniel Defoe. In addition, the work examines the impact of such catastrophes as the Great Plague and the Fire of London. The author deals with the dogged struggle for survival of the famous Spitalfields silk weavers, and explores the part played by the Weavers and their associated London Livery companies in the 'plantation of Ulster' under James I nearly four centuries ago.
This book was first published in 1972.

This independent and critical study in economic and social history is based on free access to the records of W.D. & H.O. Wills.

Dr Alford traces the history of the firm from its origin to its transformation into a constituent part of a larger company. Having played such a leading role in the development of the UK tobacco industry, Willis' book is more than the history of a single firm, it also provides an important study of a leading consumer goods industry. Drawing on aspects of economic theory, the author examines the firm's development in the light of general aspects of business history.

This major study was first published in 1973.

First published in 1976, this much acclaimed book looks at the story of how today's large corporations have superseded the small competing firms of the nineteenth century. The long-run analysis confirms that the crucial periods in the formulation of the modern corporate system were the 1920's and 1960's. The merger wave of these decades was associated with a desire to improve the efficiency of Britain's industrial organization, and the author shows that it was in a large measure responsible for the trend improvement (by historical if not international standards) in Britain's growth performance.

Students of business, economic history and industrial economics will all welcome the return to print of a notable contribution to the continuing debate on the evolution and control of the corporate manufacturing sector.

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.

This fascinating collection presents industrialization as a total historical process involving the destruction of one world simultaneously with the creation of another. Divided into two sections, it deals with elements of life such as the organization of labour, the health of the nation, rural and industrial societies, and poverty. The first section (The Expanding Economy) outlines the process by which economic growth took place and the second (The Social Impact) shows the impact this growth had on the society which both promoted and resisted it.

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.

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

This is a comprehensive account of a decisive epoch in England's economic development by a leading economic historian.

'Works of economic history often get bogged dwon in figures - so many machines, so much unemployment, often, too, they are histories of technology, not of economic organization. Professor Ashworth goes to the opposite extreme in a most praiseworthy way: his book is actually good to read. Though there are tables of statistics (eleven of them), the book is an essay in interpretation, not an encyclopedia; it enriches our understanding rather than adding to our knowledge.' A.J.P. Taylor.

This classic book was first published in 1960.

These unique papers were originally read at a conference on the new economic history of Britain at Harvard in 1970, and each is accompanied by a summary of the discussion that followed it. The participants of the conference represented a broad range of scholars from both sides of the Atlantic.
The first eleven papers deal with a variety of topics covering a period from 1840 to the 1920s. They focus on the performance of the British economy, and especially its businessmen, during the time of Britain's industrial maturity and relative decline. The papers and discussions reached a novel conclusion tha, contrary to commonly held opinion, the British economy performed well and that British businessmen were not lacking in entrepreneurial vigour compared with their German or American counterparts. But even more important for British historiography than this finding was the demonstration that economic and statistical methods can be applied successfully to the study of economic history. The papers in the concluding section discuss the origins and development of the new economic history and show that, as a substantial supplement to work along more traditional lines, its methods and application are both desirable and possible.
This collection serves as an interesting report of research into a key period in British history, and also as a useful introductory account of the new economic history in the United Kingdom.
This book was first published in 1971.

Banking in Scotland has a long and distinguished history - to this day Scotland is served by its own banks which form a distinct regional group within the wider British banking system. Yet, until this volume, there had been no book which gives a full account of modern Scottish banking, analyzing its position within the British banking structure.
With this comprehensive study, this gap in the literature of modern British financial institutions has now been filled. Here, all aspects of Scottish banking are covered. The author describes the structure of the system and the pattern of branch banking, examining the position and practices of Scottish banks in regard to deposits and asset holding. He sets out the modern position of Scottish bank note issues and analyzes their significance both for the banks themselves and for the British system as a whole. The book gives valuable appraisal of the performance of the Scottish banks as lenders to the private business sector.
The author is not concerned with Scottish banks simply as institutions domestic to Scotland. He traces their relationship with the City of London and fully analyzes their role within the operations of wider British Monetary policy. This fascinating study, first published in 1965, concludes with a consideration of the future prospects of the Scottish banks within British banking as a whole.

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.

How has British industry financed itself in the past? With the current debate on industry's financial strategy, this study of the past sixty years is a particularly timely contribution to the discussions on the future financing of industry.
This book gives, for the inter-war years, a detailed examination of the main sources of funds, covering long-term and short-term funding. It also traces the transition in the new issue market and explores the course of firms' own internal funds, and ends his coverage of the pre-war years with a chapter on the Macmillan Gap.
Dr Thomas puts particular emphasis on the influence of government policy on the financing of industry in post-war Britain. He also explains the effects the new sources of finance have had on industry and the major public corporations. His last chapter surveys the later developments in the main sources and uses of funds and the factors responsible for them, and includes an illuminating comparison of financial practices in some of the major overseas industrial countries.
Dr. Thomas has written a clear and objective account describing the trends in finance since the First World War. His notably well-documented book is an essential reference work.

The original establishment of life assurance upon a sound basis was largely the achievement of The Society for Equitable Assurances on Lives and Survivorships (now known as The Equitable Life Assurance Society and still affectionately called the 'Old Equitable'), and of the men who served her.
Old Equitable was the first life assurance society to grant long-term contracts for either a stated period or the whole of life, with premiums calculated according to age and type of assurance. Published in 1962 to mark this Society's bicentenary, this book charts its long history in a way that will interest not only those actually engaged in the assurance business, but any intelligent policy holder to whom perhaps the mechanics of life assurance is still a mystery.
This book traces the development of life assurance from untried theory into established practice, through the interplay of ideas of many individuals. Their activities, ranging far beyond the quiet walls of a life office, are part ofthe stuff of history. It tells the story of how James Dodson's vision of mutual life assurance became realized in the pioneer 'experiment' of the Equitable.

The studies assembled in this volume are dedicated to the memory of Albert Baldein, a professional numismatist whose chief interest lay in helping other numismatists, professionals, students and collectors alike, some of whom record their appreciations here. The contributions, though they are drawn from a wide variety of fields - Greek, Roman, Dark Age, Byzantine, English, Scottish, Irish and European medieval coins, and medals - are all concerned with one or more facets of the theme set out in the title. Within the general concept, the essays deal with a diversity of subjects:
* identification of mints
* attribution of coins to specific mints
* coinage current in particular periods
* composition of groups of coins in a given series
* establishment of the correct sequence of issues of such groups.
The essays also demonstrate the use of particular numismatic techniques such as die-linking, the analysis of hoards and their statistics, the minute observation of changes in titulature and inscriptions and comparison of portrait styles. There is much new, exciting and well-illustrated material for numismatists, and chapters such as those on Scottish mints and Hadrian's COS III coins will be of interest to historians.

Professor Youngson's book is an ubiased review of Britain's past experience and present difficulties. Few sacred cows are spared. There is no pretence that fundamental problems were resolved at the time of its first publication in 1967.
Many econmic historians fail in their assessment of Britian's economic prospects as there is a tendency to look only at recent events to explain current problems. Youngson saw that this was short sighted. An economy, like an airliner, cannot suddenly change its course; it is subject to persistent forces and tendencies; it is powerfully affected by what has happened in the recent and sometimes in the not so recent past. Therefore to understand the problems of today we must know somthing of how persistent they are, and about what solutions have already been tried.
This book provides a thorough examination of Britain's economic growth from 1920-1966 and contextualises Britain's situation within its true historical perspective.
This book was first published in 1967.

This book is a sequal to "Britain's Economic Prospects, "the report issued in 1968 by the Brookings Institution and universally accepted as the most thorough and comprehensive study of the British Economy to have ever appeared.
Two years later, just after the British General election, six fo the American economists who prepared the Brookings Report met with a number of other leading economists from Britain and the United States, at a weekend conference at Ditchley Park, to review the findings of the report. Papers submitted to the conference by four of the British Economists (R.C.C. Matthews, G.D.N. Worswick, E.H. Phelps Brown and M.V. Posner) covered the same ground as the Brookings Report - the role of demand management, trade and balance-of-payments problems, labour policies, and industrial policies. The conference also had before it a fifth paper, on fiscal policy and stabilization, which took issue with some of the views expressed in the Brookings report.
These papers form the coreof this book, which also contains an account of the conference discussions and concluding reflections by its Chairman, Sir Alec Cairncross, formerly Chief Economic Adviser to H.M. Government.
"Britain's Economic Prospects Reconsidered "is neither a detailed critique of the Brookings Report nor a rejoinder to it, but rather an attempt to reassess British performance and policies in the light of experience since devaluation. Its central concern is the question of why economic growth in Britain since the war has been slower than in other countries.
This book was first published in 1971.

First Published in 2005. Economic History has been briefly defined as the study of material progress. Economic History deals primarily with the material side of human progress, but it is not therefore a materialistic study.

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