ABSTRACT
The shape of the British economy changed substantially after 1870. Resources were reallocated among agriculture, industry, and services, and the contribution of each sector to employment and output was altered. Within industry the trades of the first industrial revolution declined in importance, and the manufactures based upon late-nineteenth-century and twentieth-century advances in chemistry and physics came to the fore. Large corporations multiplied in number and acquired considerable power throughout the economy. How did British developments compare with the structural changes taking place in other industrialized countries? What does the comparison tell us about Britain’s relative economic decline?
