ABSTRACT
From 1847 to 1873 sustained economic growth assured most English people of the soundness of capitalism, the merits of parliamentary government, the importance of the Empire, and the wisdom of Victorian morality. It was a solid, secure, confident age. It had, to be sure, crises and anxieties, but crises could be settled and anxieties repressed. After 1873, economic and political events began to undermine the Victorian belief that all was well. The year 1873 saw a sharper than normal fall in prices, and declining interest rates and profits. By 1896 commodity prices were a third less than in 1873, though the fall was sporadic. The year 1879 saw the invasion of cheap grains and the plummeting of rents. The years 1884-89 brought an average unemployment rate for skilled workers of 7 percent—and it was much higher for the unskilled.
