The People and the British Economy, 1830-1914

Between 1830 and 1914 Britain became the world's major trading nation, carrier of the majority of the world's goods, by far the largest investor overseas, and the centre of the world's financial system. It was an exceptional time in the history of the country and one to which many look back, even a hundred years later, with nostalgia.
Concentrating on people rather on things, this book seeks to describe the overall income and wealth of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, its growth, and how that income and wealth was produced by and distributed between different people in the population.

Roderick Floud is Provost of London Guildhall University.