Economic History

Rowena Hammal explains why the United Provinces enjoyed a ‘Golden Age’ in the first half of the Seventeenth Century.

Spain and Portugal divided almost all of South America between them, but in the 16th century the French also had commercial and colonial ambitions in Brazil. Robert Knecht tells the stories of two French expeditions that ended in disaster.

Ian Ronayne describes how the Channel Island was torn in the First World War between its role as potato producer and its patriotic duty to send men to fight.

Martin Pugh argues that life during the interwar years was brighter than has often been suggested, in spite of its association with economic depression and the rise of Fascism.

The treaties that ended the first part of the second Opium War were signed on 26 and 27 June 1858.

For Sidney and Beatrice Webb, recording the struggles of early trade unionism - and subsidising its publication - were an integral part of their social commitment, by Chris Wrigley.

Commentators have tended to play down the importance of London as a business and industrial centre since 1500, argues Theo Barker, and in the process have distorted the saga of Britain’s economic rise and fall.

China and Rome were the two great economic superpowers of the Ancient World. Yet their empires were separated by thousands of miles of inhospitable terrain, dramatically reducing the opportunities for direct communication. Raoul McLaughlin investigates.

The Spanish government managed by the Duke of Lerma was forced to declare a moratorium on its debts on November 19th, 1607.