South Wales was one of the main centres of the Industrial Revolution in Britain but the story of the rapid growth of an industrial society there has not yet been fully told, since much of the work done has consisted of articles rather than books.
This volume brings together a selection of important contributions hitherto only accessible in a large number of scattered periodicals. These articles have been selected to present a considered sequence and are preceded by an introduction which puts the story of the industrialization of Wales into perspective. They deal firstly with the problems of population and migration then with the basic industries of iron, coal, tinplate and copper. These are followed by essays on banking, and the volume concludes with contributions on trade unionism and building. This is by no means merely the story of regional development since the book has a wider appeal; a number of the articles are concerned with the links with America and with the place of Wales in the Atlantic economy. Amongst the authors are the late Sir Lewis Namier and some of the leading writers on the history of modern Wales including Brinley Thomas and A. H. Dodd.

Originally published in 1969, this book discusses the growth of foreign trade between 1600 and 1775 which brought about a commercial revolution in England. English merchants developed the exchange of manufactured goods for primary products such as tobacco, sugar, cotton and silk. A notable feature of these years was the American orientation of English overseas trade. This expansion of commerce made a decisive contribution to national economic growth. Its implications for the economy as a whole and the process of industrialization are reviewed at length in the substantial introduction.

South Wales was one of the main centres of the Industrial Revolution in Britain but the story of the rapid growth of an industrial society there has not yet been fully told, since much of the work done has consisted of articles rather than books. This volume brings together a selection of important contributions hitherto only accessible in a large number of scattered periodicals. These articles have been selected to present a considered sequence and are preceded by an introduction which puts the story of the industrialization of Wales into perspective. They deal firstly with the problems of population and migration then with the basic industries of iron, coal, tinplate and copper. These are followed by essays on banking, and the volume concludes with contributions on trade unionism and building. This is by no means merely the story of regional development since the book has a wider appeal; a number of the articles are concerned with the links with America and with the place of Wales in the Atlantic economy. Amongst the authors are the late Sir Lewis Namier and some of the leading writers on the history of modern Wales including Brinley Thomas and A. H. Dodd.