Before the industrial revolution prolonged economic growth was unachievable. All economies were organic, dependent on plant photosynthesis to provide food, raw materials, and energy. This was true both of heat energy, derived from burning wood, and mechanical energy provided chiefly by human and animal muscle. The flow of energy from the sun captured by plant photosynthesis was the basis of all production and consumption. Britain began to escape the old restrictions by making increasing use of the vast stock of energy contained in coal measures, initially as a source of heat energy but eventually also of mechanical energy, thus making possible the industrial revolution. In this concise and accessible account of change between the reigns of Elizabeth I and Victoria, Wrigley describes how during this period Britain moved from the economic periphery of Europe to becoming briefly the world's leading economy, forging a path rapidly emulated by its competitors.

Before the industrial revolution prolonged economic growth was unachievable. All economies were organic, dependent on plant photosynthesis to provide food, raw materials, and energy. This was true both of heat energy, derived from burning wood, and mechanical energy provided chiefly by human and animal muscle. The flow of energy from the sun captured by plant photosynthesis was the basis of all production and consumption. Britain began to escape the old restrictions by making increasing use of the vast stock of energy contained in coal measures, initially as a source of heat energy but eventually also of mechanical energy, thus making possible the industrial revolution. In this concise and accessible account of change between the reigns of Elizabeth I and Victoria, Wrigley describes how during this period Britain moved from the economic periphery of Europe to becoming briefly the world's leading economy, forging a path rapidly emulated by its competitors.

Contrary to a prevalent belief, the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century dramatically improved the standard of living of the people. The 3 parts of this DVD attempt to show how this remarkable transformation came about. "The Industrial Revolution" series focuses on England's transformation in the 18th and 19th centuries which initiated a process of economic growth and social and political change that some call the greatest economic discontinuity in history. The significance of the Industrial Revolution is explained by showing its causes and consequences. Approximate running time: 87 minutes.

Transport labour has been a fundamental feature in every economic system and in every epoch of humanity worldwide. This volume considers the history of labour in transport from 1750 to 1950, in the context of globalisation and the evolution of capitalism. The nine articles presented in this collective work span these two centuries and address a largely neglected aspect of labour history in transport: the stories from the Global South (Africa, Asia and Latin America). The transport sectors touched upon in these studies are wide-ranging, encompassing a variety of workers, from porters to boatmen in India, from Mongolian caravanners to Filipino rickshaw drivers, from truck drivers to postal runners in west Africa, from wage-earning slave porters to immigrant railway workers in the cities of Brazil. These histories from the South are a constitutive part of the global history of labour.

This account of Swissair's day-by-day history will serve as the basis of any future exploration of Switzerland's former national carrier, from its founding right up to the grounding of the fleet and ultimate demise of the company. Documented here is every significant corporate decision, along with previously little-known background information, a comprehensive overview of operational incidents, the airline's route network over seven decades, the countries Swissair served and types of aircraft it operated. In short, this book covers everything that made the legendary airline distinctive, in unprecedented scope. This new standard reference work records in precise detail and in easily comprehensible English both the history of civil aviation in Switzerland and the qualities that Swissair deemed important over its 70 years in existence. Rather than judge or assign blame, this book sticks strictly to the facts and figures that reflect the dedication of Swissair employees - from those in the cockpit and the cabin to those in marketing and technical services, both at home and abroad - to "their" airline, from the very early days right up until the final flight by a Swissair aircraft. In the process, the book injects new life into one of the most exciting chapters in the history of Swiss commerce.

The journalist and politician Edward Baines (1800-90) succeeded his father as editor of the Leeds Mercury and as MP for Leeds. From a dissenting family, he was a social reformer but passionately believed that the state should not interfere in matters such as working hours and education. In this 1835 work, he sees the cotton industry as an exemplar of the unity of 'the manufactory, the laboratory, and the study of the natural philosopher', in making practical use of creative ideas and scientific discoveries. He surveys cotton manufacture from its origins to its 'second birth' in England, and focuses on the current state of machinery, trade and working conditions in all aspects of the business, and its outputs, including cloth, lace, stockings and cotton wool. This comprehensive work was important for its detailed analysis of a vital commercial activity, and remains so today for the historical information it contains.

Today technology has created a world of dazzling progress, growing disparities of wealth and poverty, and looming threats to the environment. Technology: A World History offers an illuminating backdrop to our present moment--a brilliant history of invention around the globe. Historian Daniel R. Headrick ranges from the Stone Age and the beginnings of agriculture to the Industrial Revolution and the electronic revolution of the recent past. In tracing the growing power of humans over nature through increasingly powerful innovations, he compares the evolution of technology in different parts of the world, providing a much broader account than is found in other histories of technology. We also discover how small changes sometimes have dramatic results--how, for instance, the stirrup revolutionized war and gave the Mongols a deadly advantage over the Chinese. And how the nailed horseshoe was a pivotal breakthrough for western farmers. Enlivened with many illustrations, Technology offers a fascinating look at the spread of inventions around the world, both as boons for humanity and as weapons of destruction.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 edition. Excerpt: ...one already mentioned between Pittsburg and Erie, affording very little comfort or facility to those who have the misfortune to be obliged to travel upon them. But on the construction of one or two lines of road, the Americans have bestowed a little more attention. The most remarkable of them is that called the "National Koad," stretching across the country from Baltimore to the State of Illinois, a distance of no less than 700 miles, an arduous and extensive work, which was constructed at the expense of the government of the United States. The narrow tract of land from which it was necessary to remove the timber and brushwood for the passage of the road measures eighty feet in breadth; but the breadth of the road itself is only thirty feet. Commencing at Baltimore, it passes through part of the State of Maryland, and entering that of Pennsylvania, crosses the range of the Alleghany Mountains after which, it passes through the States of Virginia, Ohio and Indiana, to Illinois. It is in contemplation to produce this line of road to the Mississippi at St Louis, where, the river being crossed by a ferry-boat stationed at that place, the road is ultimately to be extended into the State of Missouri, which lies to the west of the Mississippi. The "Macadamized road," as it is called, leading from Albany to Troy, is another line which has been formed at some cost, and with some degree of care. This road, as its name implies, is constructed with stone broken, according to Macadam's principle. It is six miles in length, and.has been formed of a sufficient breadth to allow three carriages to stand abreast on it at once. It belongs to an incorporated company, who are said to have expended about L.20,000 in constructing and upholding it....

Harland and Wolff, once acknowledged as the greatest and best-known shipbuilding company in the world, for many years enjoyed a mighty eminence before a gradual descent into near obscurity. This illustrated book, told from the unique perspective of someone who was there at the time, chronicles the history of the organisation from its creation to the present day, from its halcyon days to its present incarnation. Today, the company is no longer involved in shipbuilding, maintaining only a small ship repair and engineering facility and occupying a fraction of its previously vast complex. At its peak Harland and Wolff directly employed over 45,000 people, with even more in its subsidiary companies. Well-known Harland and Wolff former employee Tom McCluskie, who was a technical consultant to James Cameron on the movie Titanic, sheds light on many little-known facts about the business, delves into the human interest stories, and recounts both the mighty zenith and ignominious demise of this great enterprise.

The Industrial Workers of the World is a union unlike any other. Founded in 1905 in Chicago, it rapidly gained members across the world thanks to its revolutionary, internationalist outlook. By using powerful organising methods including direct-action and direct-democracy, it put power in the hands of workers. This philosophy is labeled as 'revolutionary industrial unionism' and the members called, affectionately, 'Wobblies'. This book is the first to look at the history of the IWW from an international perspective. Bringing together a group of leading scholars, it includes lively accounts from a number diverse countries including Australia, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Sweden and Ireland, which reveal a fascinating story of global anarchism, syndicalism and socialism. Drawing on many important figures of the movements such as Tom Barker, Har Dayal, Joe Hill, James Larkin and William D. "Big Bill" Haywood, and exploring particular industries including shipping, mining, and agriculture, this book describes how the IWW and its ideals travelled around the world.

First published in 1910, as the fourth edition of an 1895 original, this book forms part of the Cambridge Historical Series. The text presents a comprehensive analysis of English industrial development, incorporating discussion of financial systems, immigration, agriculture and the growth of towns, as well as the fundamental changes of the industrial revolution. This broad perspective is rooted in the idea that English industrial history 'is the story of the material side of the life of a great nation'. A bibliography and chronological table are also included. This is a highly readable book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in historiography, British industrial history and economic history.

Originally published in 1935, this book presents the origins and structure of the industrial 'quasi-monopoly' in Germany in contrast to similar organizations in contemporary England. Levy discusses industrial cartels in a variety of fields, from film to steel, and the shift in public opinion on the acceptability of monopolies. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in German economic or industrial history.

From its humble beginnings as a fur-trading outpost, Chicago has become one of the foremost centers of world finance and trade. With its blue-collar work ethic and an economic history that extends into virtually every segment of American industry, it certainly lives up to its moniker as the City That Works. Drawing on the award-winning "Encyclopedia of Chicago", Janice L. Reiff has compiled a unique history of work in the "Windy City". Beginning with an overview of the city's commercial development, "Chicago Business and Industry" considers how key industries shaped - and were shaped by - both the local and global economies. The city's phenomenal population growth, its proximity to water, and its development of railroads made Chicago one of the most productive markets for lumber and grain throughout the nineteenth century. The region's once-booming steel industry, on the other hand, suffered a dramatic decline in the second half of the twentieth century, when already weakened demand met with increasing international competition. "Chicago Business and Industry" chronicles the Chicago region's changing fortunes from its beginning. Reiff has compiled and updated essays from the Encyclopedia covering the city's most historically famous - and infamous - companies, from the Union Stock Yard to Montgomery Ward to the Board of Trade. The book concludes with a historical account of labor types and issues in the city, with attention to such topics as health-care workers, unemployment, and unionization. Today, Groupon and a host of other high-tech firms have led some experts to christen Chicago the Silicon Valley of the Midwest. Reiff's new introduction takes account of these and other recent trends. Engaging, accessible, and packed with fascinating facts, "Chicago Business and Industry" invites readers into the history and diversity of work in the city, helping them understand how Chicago became Chicago.

Prakash Kumar documents the history of agricultural indigo, exploring the effects of nineteenth-century globalisation on this colonial industry. Charting the indigo culture from the early modern period to the twentieth century, Kumar discusses how knowledge of indigo culture thrived among peasant traditions on the Indian subcontinent in the early modern period and was then developed by Caribbean planters and French naturalists who codified this knowledge into widely disseminated texts. European planters who settled in Bengal with the establishment of British rule in the late eighteenth century drew on this information. From the nineteenth century, indigo culture became more modern, science-based and expert driven, and with the advent of a cheaper, purer synthetic indigo in 1897, indigo science crossed paths with the colonial state's effort to develop a science for agricultural development. Only at the end of the First World War, when the industrial use of synthetic indigo for textile dyeing and printing became almost universal, did the indigo industry's optimism fade away.

On a spring morning in 1914, in the stark foothills of southern Colorado, members of the United Mine Workers of America clashed with guards employed by the Rockefeller family, and a state militia beholden to Colorado s industrial barons. When the dust settled, nineteen men, women, and children among the miners families lay dead. The strikers had killed at least thirty men, destroyed six mines, and laid waste to two company towns.

"Killing for Coal" offers a bold and original perspective on the 1914 Ludlow Massacre and the Great Coalfield War. In a sweeping story of transformation that begins in the coal beds and culminates with the deadliest strike in American history, Thomas Andrews illuminates the causes and consequences of the militancy that erupted in colliers strikes over the course of nearly half a century. He reveals a complex world shaped by the connected forces of land, labor, corporate industrialization, and workers resistance.

Brilliantly conceived and written, this book takes the organic world as its starting point. The resulting elucidation of the coalfield wars goes far beyond traditional labor history. Considering issues of social and environmental justice in the context of an economy dependent on fossil fuel, Andrews makes a powerful case for rethinking the relationships that unite and divide workers, consumers, capitalists, and the natural world.

William Hoey (1849 1919) was a magistrate in Lucknow, India when this book was published by the American Missionary Press in 1880. At the time, Lucknow was the seventh largest city in the British Empire, and it was the capital of the province that had most recently come under British rule. Hoey's monograph captures the details of trade in the city and surrounding regions at this time of change. Part 1 outlines the prominent features of trade in the area and includes tables of imports and exports. Part 2 focuses on Lucknow specifically, and contains the author's discussion of the impact of British rule on the city. The third part is a detailed A-Z of every trade, including information on production, prices and profit, and the work concludes with an extensive glossary of Indian terms. The level of detail in this work makes it an invaluable historical document.

This book by George F. Bosworth was originally published in 1915 and was the first title to appear in the Cambridge Industrial and Commercial Series. Intended for use in schools, the volume traces the development of human ingenuity in shipping from the early dug-out boat to the launching of the Aquitania. Successive chapters provide a detailed account of the work of the Royal Navy and dockyards and also consider the fishing industry and ports in Great Britain, lighthouses and lightships, their construction, distribution, and value to the shipping industry. Great seaports and their industries, together with the history and condition of the Cinque Ports are treated in the last chapters.

The Miners' Unions of Northumberland and Durham by the historian Edward Welbourne was first published in 1923. It was based on a study which had previously been awarded the Thirlwall Prize, the Seeley Medal for History, and the Gladstone Prize in the year 1921 at the University of Cambridge. The book presents an historical analysis of the charged social conditions and conflicts that shaped the coal mining industry in the north of England from the middle of the eighteenth to the end of the nineteenth century.

The Growth of English Industry and Commerce, published in its first edition in 1882, was a large-scale economic study by the historian William Cunningham (1849-1919). The ambitious work ultimately grew to encompass two volumes, divided into three parts, and reissued over a period of more than forty years in several revised and expanded editions. This book contains the 1907 fourth edition of the second part of Volume II, dealing with laissez faire in commerce. It covers the period of economic history from about the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to the middle of the nineteenth century.

The Growth of English Industry and Commerce, published in its first edition in 1882, was a large-scale economic study by the historian William Cunningham (1849-1919). The ambitious work ultimately grew to encompass two volumes, divided into three parts, and reissued over a period of more than forty years in several revised and expanded editions. This book contains the fifth edition of Volume I, published in 1910. It covers the period of economic history during the Early and Middle Ages.

First published in 1934, and reissued in a second edition in 1936, this volume by Thomas Hennell was intended to collect and arrange some of the relics of past generations of farmers, farmyards and traditional agricultural methods. In addition to sixteen detailed and descriptive chapters on the changing nature of the farm, the volume offers an abundance of illustrations and diagrams by the author, depicting a variety of farmyard implements and pastoral scenes from across the British Isles.

Widely credited as having established the term 'industrial revolution' as a historical concept, Arnold Toynbee (1852 83) was among the most outspoken political economists of the nineteenth century. This volume is a collection of his Balliol lectures and other public addresses, originally published posthumously in 1884. The lectures, often humorous, discuss developments in contemporary political economy, the views of other commentators, and the impact on society of this new discipline; viewed as a collection, they represent one of the first calls for economic history as an academic subject to be studied separately from political history. Given during the early 1880s, the popular addresses treat some of the most important economic topics of the day, from the role of trade unions to the relationship between wages and production. Also included in this book are a preface by the author's wife, and a memoir by his friend and colleague, Benjamin Jowett.

Florence Kelley (1859 1932) was a committed socialist and political reformer who campaigned against child labour in the United States. In 1899 she became the leader of the National Consumers' League, an anti-sweatshop and pro-minimum wage pressure group which she supported until her death. This volume, first published in 1914, describes her views on the problems facing American society due to the expansion of industry. Kelley discusses the negative effects of rapid industrialisation on the American urban working class, in terms of the effects on the family, on the health of workers, on the education of the working class; and discusses the economic 'morality' of controlling the means of production. She also suggests possible legislation to mitigate these problems, some of which later passed into federal law. This volume provides a vivid description of the lives of America's urban working class and illustrates the extent of contemporary industrialisation in America.

A major 2008 study of the role of women in the labour market of Industrial Revolution Britain. It is well known that men and women usually worked in different occupations, and that women earned lower wages than men. These differences are usually attributed to custom but Joyce Burnette here demonstrates instead that gender differences in occupations and wages were instead largely driven by market forces. Her findings reveal that rather than harming women competition actually helped them by eroding the power that male workers needed to restrict female employment and minimising the gender wage gap by sorting women into the least strength-intensive occupations. Where the strength requirements of an occupation made women less productive than men, occupational segregation maximised both economic efficiency and female incomes. She shows that women's wages were then market wages rather than customary and the gender wage gap resulted from actual differences in productivity.

American Business Abroad: Ford on Six Continents documents the first sixty years of Ford Motor Company's international expansion. Ford Motor Company introduced Americans to the first affordable car. Based on Ford's extraordinary company archives, this book traces the company's rise as a multinational enterprise. Following the export of the sixth car produced by the company, Ford opened its first plant abroad in its second year of business and quickly expanded around the world, building a business that by the mid 1920s spanned six continents. It faced wars, nationalism, numerous government restrictions and all the perils of operating across borders. First published in 1964, this book has lasting value in reminding readers of the long and uneven path of globalization. This new edition includes a new introduction by the author examining the impact and legacy of the study. It remains a major contribution to global economic history. In addition, Ford's history offers useful lessons today for both participants in the global economy and students of international business.