ABSTRACT
Any period of major advance in material achievement tends to be deceptive to people living in it. Surface manifestations rarely reflect truly underlying movements of change. During the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century, material development in England had constantly outrun expectation. The increase in productive capacity within England was accompanied, and at first fostered, then threatened, by a great increase in international trade. In the first half of the century England had loaned capital to other countries but Englishmen had not remained to direct foreign enterprises. The movements of industrial consolidation and of corporate organization at home and of the export of capital abroad were paralleled and stimulated by the increasing centralization of finance during the ‘seventies and ‘eighties. Despite England's theoretical commitment to economic liberalism, actually collective human planning was being used at place after place in society. Industrial capitalism thrives by feeding an abundant working class to its machines.
