The Political Economy Of British Historical Experience 1688 1914

How did Britain emerge as a world power and later as the world's first industrial society? What policies, cultural practices, and institutions were responsible for this outcome? How were the inevitable disruptions to social and political life coped with? This innovative volume illustrates the contribution of economic thinking (scientific, official and popular) to the public understanding of British economic experience over the period 1688-1914. Political economy has frequently served as the favourite mode of public discourse when analysing or justifying British economic policies, performance and institutions. These sixteen essays, centering on the peculiarities of the British experience, are grouped under five main themes: foreign assessments of that experience; land tenure; empire and free trade; fiscal and monetary regimes; and the poor law and welfare. This is a collaborative endeavour by historians with established reputations in their field, which will appeal to all those interested in the current development of these branches of historical scholarship.

This two-volume set brings together the essential and extensive publications by Professor Thompson otherwise scattered in many journals. These pieces form a major supplement to his classic book English Landed Society.

This two-volume set brings together the essential and extensive publications by Professor Thompson otherwise scattered in many journals. These pieces form a major supplement to his classic book English Landed Society.Volume 2Contents: Rural society and agricultural change in nineteenth-century Britain, from George Grantham and Carol S. Leonard (eds.), Agrarian organisation in the century of industrialisation: Europe, Russia, and North America (Greenwich, Conn., JAI Press, 1989); Life after death: how successful nineteenth-century businessmen disposed of their fortunes, Economic History Review, 2nd ser, 43 (1990); English landed society in the twentieth century, 1, Property: collapse and survival, (Presidential address), Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser. 40 (1990); English Landed Society in the Twentieth Century. 1: Property: Collapse and Survival, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., Vol. 40., 1990; English landed society in the twentieth century, 2: new poor and new rich, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser. 1 (1991); English landed society in the twentieth century, 3, Self help and outdoor relief, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser. 2 (1992); English landed society in the twentieth century, 4, Prestige without power? Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser. 3 (1993).Desirable properties: the town and country connection in British society since the late eighteenth century, Historical Research, 64 (1991); Stitching it together again (Reply to W.D. Rubinstein), Economic History Review, 2nd ser. 45 (1992); Changing Perceptions of Land Tenure in Britain, 1750-1914, from Donald Winch and Patrick K. O'Brien (eds.), The Political Economy of British Historical Experience 1688-1914 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002); Moving frontiers and the Fortunes of the Aristocratic Town 1830-1930, The London Journal, Vol.2, No.1, 1995; The Land market, 1880-1925: A reappraisal reappraised, The Agricultural History Journal, Vol.55, Part II, 2007; The Strange Death of the English Land question, from Matthew Cragoe and Paul Readman (eds.), The Land Question in Britain, 1750-1950 (Houndsmill, Palgrave, 2010).

An examination of how 'public opinion' functioned as a concept in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain.

A new edition of the leading textbook on the economic history of Britain since industrialization. Combining the expertise of more than thirty leading historians and economists, Volume 1 tracks Britain's economic history in the period ranging from 1700 to 1870 from industrialisation to global trade and empire. Each chapter provides a clear guide to the major controversies in the field and students are shown how to connect historical evidence with economic theory and apply quantitative methods. New approaches are proposed to classic issues such as the causes and consequences of industrialisation, the role of institutions and the state, and the transition from an organic to an inorganic economy, as well as introducing new issues such as globalisation, convergence and divergence, the role of science, technology and invention, and the growth of consumerism. Throughout the volume, British experience is set within an international context and its performance benchmarked against its global competitors.

Economic Growth and the Origins of Modern Political Economy addresses the intellectual foundations of modern economic growth and European industrialization. Through an examination both of the roots of European industrialization and of the history of economic ideas, this book presents a uniquely broad examination of the origins of modern political economy. This volume asks what can we learn from ‘old’ theories in terms of our understanding of history, our economic fate today, and the prospects for the modern world’s poorest countries. Spanning across the past five hundred years, this book brings together leading international contributors offering comparative perspectives with countries outside of Europe in order to place the evolution of modern economic knowledge into a broader reference framework. It integrates economic discourse and the intellectual history of political economy with more empirical studies in economic history and the history of science. In doing so, this innovative volume presents a coherent and innovative new strategy towards a reconfiguration of the history of modern political economy. This book is suitable for those who study history of economic thought, economic history or European history.

The Oxford Handbook of the Politics of International Trade surveys the literature on the politics of international trade and highlights the most exciting recent scholarly developments. It examines the impact of domestic societal actors, domestic institutions, and international interactions on trade policy and trade flows, as well as building on this basic analytical framework. Including contributions from prominent scholars around the globe, and from multiple theoretical and methodological traditions, the volume considers the development of concepts and policies about international trade; the influence of individuals, firms, and societies; the role of domestic and international institutions; and the interaction of trade and other issues, such as monetary policy, environmental challenges, and human rights. Showcasing both established theories and findings and cutting-edge new research, the Handbook is a valuable reference for scholars of political economy.

In War, Wine, and Taxes, John Nye debunks the myth that Britain was a free-trade nation during and after the industrial revolution, by revealing how the British used tariffs—notably on French wine—as a mercantilist tool to politically weaken France and to respond to pressure from local brewers and others. The book reveals that Britain did not transform smoothly from a mercantilist state in the eighteenth century to a bastion of free trade in the late nineteenth. This boldly revisionist account gives the first satisfactory explanation of Britain's transformation from a minor power to the dominant nation in Europe. It also shows how Britain and France negotiated the critical trade treaty of 1860 that opened wide the European markets in the decades before World War I. Going back to the seventeenth century and examining the peculiar history of Anglo-French military and commercial rivalry, Nye helps us understand why the British drink beer not wine, why the Portuguese sold liquor almost exclusively to Britain, and how liberal, eighteenth-century Britain managed to raise taxes at an unprecedented rate—with government revenues growing five times faster than the gross national product. War, Wine, and Taxes stands in stark contrast to standard interpretations of the role tariffs played in the economic development of Britain and France, and sheds valuable new light on the joint role of commercial and fiscal policy in the rise of the modern state.