Economic History

Cotton, the Social Fabric

The world’s first global commodity spawned a network of traders, producers and consumers, whose interactions shaped the modern world, as Giorgio Riello explains.

Hambro and Cavour

J.D. Scott describes how a London banker, of Danish origin, played a large part in financing the unification of Italy.

Plenty and Want: The Social History of English Diet

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...”

The English Middle Classes in the Eighteenth Century

E.N. Williams describes how English merchants and manufacturers amassed huge fortunes, enlarged their political influence, and raised their social status, while many trades of the previous century became dignified and lucrative professions.

Wood and Coal : A Change of Fuel

Alan D. Dyer describes how Britain’s industrial development began when coal replaced wood during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.