ABSTRACT
The aim of this volume is to avoid those hasty generalisations, from random examples, without much regard to time and place, which have been drawn too often from the historical experience of advanced nations and presented as lessons to be used by contemporary underdeveloped countries; instead it is to concentrate on concrete cases which can be analysed in some depth. This is why I suggested that I might deal with the experience of Continental Western Europe – France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland 1 – during the period from 1815 to about 1850. This leaves aside the disturbances of the war period prior to 1815 and stops at mid-century, when there is a definite turning-point in the economic development of the area. These countries were (along with the United States) the first ‘followers’ or ‘late-comers’ who tried, during this period, to emulate Britain and to introduce the new technology which she had invented. The sample is relatively limited, homogeneous and yet varied. The study of the problems facing these countries in their attempts to catch up with the leader of the Industrial Revolution may possibly throw some light upon the questions which beset us at the present day.
