Merchant Enterprise in Britain
From the Industrial Revolution to World War I

Stanley Chapman (Author)

9780521893626, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 January 2004

356 pages
22.9 x 15.5 x 2.3 cm, 0.53 kg

Studies of the British Industrial Revolution and of the Victorian period of economic and social development have until very recently concentrated on British industries and industrial regions, while commerce and finance, and particularly that of London, have been substantially neglected. This has distorted our view of the process of change, since financial services and much trade continued to be centred on the metropolis, and the south-east region never lost its position at the top of the national league of wealth.

List of figures
List of tables
Preface
Abbreviations used in the footnotes
Introduction: approaches and concepts
Part I. The Setting: 1. The eighteenth-century structure of merchant enterprise
2. The consequences of the Industrial Revolution and the French wars
Part II. New Streams of Enterprise: 3. Merchants in the Atlantic trade
4. The agency houses: trade to India and the far East
5. The international houses: the foreign contribution to British mercantile enterprise
6. The home trade houses
Part III. Response to Instant Communication: 7. Problems of restructuring mercantile enterprise
8. British-based investment groups before 1914
9. Imperialism and British trade
Part IV. Conclusions: 10. Performance of british mercantile enterprise
Manuscript sources
Index of firms and people
Index of plates
Index of subjects.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], British & Irish history [HBJD1]