Economic History

Nicholas Lane recounts the story of marine insurance, from coffeehouse days to worldwide fame.

Stella Margetson describes how, with the single-mindedness of a devoted artist, John Palmer revolutionized the transport system of the British Isles.

In 1862 a Japanese official mission visited England, nine years after the re-opening of their country to the world. Carmen Blacker describes how their strange attire and ‘inscrutable reticence’ surprised the mid-Victorian public.

Originally planned to serve a political purpose, writes George Woodcock, the Canadian Pacific has played an important part in the general development of the modern Dominion.

For forty years, ruler of an alien country, Mohammed Ali attempted a revolution from which Egypt might have emerged into the twentieth century “as a small-scale Japan.”  

Between the Congress of Vienna and the Year of Revolutions, Vienna enjoyed a homely, idyllic period of gaiety, security and peace. In 1848, writes Tudor Edwards, the idyll was shattered by bloody revolts throughout the Empire.

Trade with the English “tobacco lords”, writes William T. Brigham, brought on a private war which outlasted the American Revolution.

Alan Haynes describes the Flemish weavers imported to London in the reign of James I and how, throughout the seventeenth century, their work continued.

The history of insurance reflects the rapid development of commercial and industrial Britain. Nicholas Lane describes how its pioneers broke down the monopolies that had existed since the days of the South Sea Bubble.

R.B. Oram recounts an episode in the history of British shipping.