This book of essays, which draws on the expertise of leading textile scholars in Britain and the United States, focuses on the problem of and responses to foreign competition in textiles from the late nineteenth century to the present day.
A short introductory essay by the editor is followed by a survey of the debates surrounding the British cotton industry, foreign competition and competitive advantage. The other essays consider various aspects of that competition, including textile machine-making, Lancashire perceptions of the rise of Japan during the inter-war period and responses to foreign competition in the British cotton industry since 1945, whilst others deal with the decline and rise of merchanting in UK textiles and European competition in woollen yarn and cloth from 1870 to 1914. A recurring theme in a number of the essays is Japanese competitive advantage in textiles.
The book is unique since although there are numerous books dealing with the problems of British staple industries, nonefocuses primarily on the issue of competition, its sources and responses, nor on textiles in general rather than a single industry. Moreover, since the scope is international rather than limited only to the UK, it follows recent trends in British busines history away from single company case studies towards a more thematic, comparative approach. In addition, the international authorship of these papers gives this book, first published in 1991, wide appeal.

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

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.

This book was first published in 1935. An exploration of the 'two nations' looking the medieval managed currency and its collapse, the failure of the Stuarts through to Bishop Berkeley, the corn law revolts, Ireland and America, to the 1920s and prosperity, crisis and counter attack in 1935.

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

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. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2005. This volume collects together the twenty-one inaugural lectures in economic history, eighteen of them delivered by professors of the subject in British universities between 1929 and 1970. To these, three earlier lectures have been appropriately added.

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

First Published in 2005. This book includes the history of labour and wages from the reign of Henry II in 1258 to the nineteenth century. To give context to the wages of workers it also includes the general prices of the time in order to estimate the purchasing power of those wages, as well as the conditions of rural and town life and the distribution of wealth and trade.

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

First published in 2005. Taking a look at the Industrial Revolution from 1760 in English Agriculture, Manufacturing and politics and also discussing the mechanical revolution and its economic and social effects., this book puts forward that the civilised world has been changed, and social duties, morals, habits, habitations, and connections all altered by the discoveries of a few dozen able men.

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. 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. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

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.

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.

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

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.

Medium-Sized cities in the Age of Globalisation provides a brand-new perspective on academic discussions of globalisation through exploring urban development outside of select global cities including Paris, Tokyo, and London, and instead focuses on medium-sized cities in the context of a globalising world. Combining the author’s expertise with extensive research, this book fills a gap in the scholarly debate on globalisation and urban development, with chapters of the book giving detailed insight on urban governance and economy, local identity, and urban representation. Through a range of visual sources including maps, tables, and graphs, the book is applicable and accessible, and offers a specialised analysis of medium-sized cities through assessing urban regeneration policies as well as promotional activities and their role in promoting positive change in an era of great inter-urban competition. This book contains valuable historical insights and is excellent specialised material for scholars and postgraduate students in the disciplines of Urban History, Urban Studies, and Geography, as well as being a significant source for Professionals working in urban planning and place promotion

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.

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.

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.