`...as an up-to-date and intelligible an account of large areas of British industry as you will find...It will be a valuable handbook for a variety of users: students and teachers(its prijmary audience), businessmen or coivil servants.' British Business

Why did the industrial revolution take place in 18th century Britain and not elsewhere in Europe or Asia? Robert Allen argues that the British industrial revolution was a successful response to the global economy of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Beginning at the time of the revolution in 1688, and ending in the 1950s, this book sets out to establish the main quantitative features of the British economy over as long a period as available statistics permit. Topics include changes in the population structure, industrial structure and more.

This is the first systematic quantitative account of British economic growth from the thirteenth century to the Industrial Revolution.