In 1700, Britain was a rural country. By 1850, the year before the Great Exhibition, it was 'the workshop of the world'. This book examines this change, the creation of national markets, and the economic growth which characterized the movement from agriculture to industry. It is useful for anyone studying 18th and 19th century British history.

Progress and Poverty: The Possibilities of Growth 1: Agriculture and Rural Society Agricultural Production: The Limits of Growth The Rise of the Great Estates and the Decline of the Yeoman Open Fields and Enclosure: The Demise of Commonality 2: Industry and Urban Society Diversities of Industrialization The Domestic Systems of Manufacturers The Coming of the Factory Furnaces, Forges, and Mines Capital and Credit 3: Integrating the Economy Integration and Specialization Transport Merchants and Marketing Banks and Money Demand, Supply, and Industrialization 4: Poverty, Prosperity, and Population Births, Marriages, and Deaths The Standard of Living and the Social History of Wages Poor Relief and Charity 5: Public Policy and the State The Visible Hand: The State and the Economy Taxation and Public Finance Mercantilism and Free Trade Conclusion

Superb and wide-ranging survey of a fast changing field. Dr C. J. Schmitz, Lecturer in Modern History, University of St. Andrew's `a timely and largely successful attempt to rehumanize modern British economic history by reintegrating it with its social and political cousins...Daunton's integrative approach is most valuable...style is lucid and lively, and his explanations of even the most arcane institutions and concepts are models of clarity...Postgraduates and specialists should relish both its ambitious scope and its fine tuning.' Economic History Review `This is a lot of book for the money. Well over 600 pages for less than £15 is good value. It is not only volume that one is purchasing but also a quality product. It combines an excellent synthesis of the most recent work on the classic industrial revolution period with the author's own perceptive insights and interconnections...Each chapter is simply and clearly written, making it very accessible to students as well as more widely read scholars, and yet each contains a sophisticated analysis drawing on economic concepts and terms and spelling out mechanisms by which economic relationships occured. Daunton is excellent at explaining complicated issues...the book is greatly to be welcomed. It will be a great boon to students and a good read for scholars. I look forward to volume II' Business History `Daunton has written a work of grand synthesis and sustained argument, which will be read and reread by professionals and students alike. The book is well produced, with convenient notes and excellent bibliographies, and is a signal achievement not least because its author has rescued so many important findings from highly technical studies and made them part of a story told in lucid, attractive prose. Both admirers and critics will want a sequel.' G.F. Steckley, Knox College, Choice, March 1996 Vol.33 No.7

Amongst Daunton's previous publications are: Housing the Workers: A Comparative Perspective 1850-1914 (editor, Leciester UP, 1989), A Property-owning Democracy? Housing in Britain (Faber, 1987), House and Home in Victorian City, 1850-1914 (Edward Arnold, 1984), and Councillors and Tenants (Leicester UP, 1983)