The history of insurance reflects the rapid development of commercial and industrial Britain. Nicholas Lane describes how its pioneers broke down the monopolies that had existed since the days of the South Sea Bubble.
R.B. Oram recounts an episode in the history of British shipping.
Stephen Usherwood describes how the crisis of 1926, which silenced the British Press, was a challenge to the broadcasting authorities.
The first English ship reached Japan in 1613. Michael Cooper describes how the Chief Factor of the East India Company recorded some reminiscences.
George Woodcock gives an account of an Imperial enterprise in south-east Asia.
Until the mid seventeenth century, writes L.W. Cowie, the nave of old St Paul’s Cathedral was an active centre of commerce.
The world’s first global commodity spawned a network of traders, producers and consumers, whose interactions shaped the modern world, as Giorgio Riello explains.
J.D. Scott describes how a London banker, of Danish origin, played a large part in financing the unification of Italy.
Just over a hundred years ago, writes William Watson, an unprovoked attack on a party of inoffensive Westerners was followed by violent reprisals.
For the English upper and middle classes, writes John Burnett, the nineteenth century was a period of huge and ostentatious meals; but “only during the last twenty years has the population as a whole been economically able to achieve an adequate diet...”
