ABSTRACT
In 1 8 5 1, the year of the Great Exhibition, Britain was almost exactly at mid-point of the period at which, it is claimed, she was 'the workshop of the world' .1 The period, which began in the 1820s and ended with the depression of the 1870s, was the high noon of economic advance. Britain's natural resources (especially of coal and iron), her skilled, adaptable manpower and the industrial developments of the eighteenth century enabled her by 18 5 1 to rise to a position of global influence and power 2 and to lead the world in the supply of machinery, manufactured and textile goods. At this time, Britain was experiencing a level of industrial production and foreign trade which set her far ahead of all other countries. 3
Although natural resources and inventiveness were central to Britain's rise to economic power, other factors also played a part: her naval strength guarded her overseas trade routes and had removed all danger of destructive wars; the growth of population gave manufacturing industries an increasing home market as well as a supply of workers; free trade encouraged overseas commerce; and the railways accelerated industrial and commercial development. The Great Exhibition, whilst confirming Britain's position as the leading industrial nation, also marked the beginning of an age of rapidly accelerating industrial production of coal, iron and steel and many other commodities. The mood of euphoria and complacency lasted for the next twenty years, at the end of which period the foreign trade of the United Kingdom was still more than that of France, Germany and Italy together, and four times that of the United States.
