ABSTRACT
O ne o f the outstanding features o f the economic history o f the second half o f the nineteenth century was the enormous increase in international trade and inter national specialisation w hich took place principally under Britain’s leadership. The rapid growth o f world trade was part o f a m uch wider process o f change in the international econom y involving a great m ovem ent o f factors o f production — capital and labour - across the globe. In Europe, the decline o f agriculture and the shift to industry and services in the towns led to a vast displacement o f peoples both w ithin the continent and overseas; the latter m ovem ent brought the ‘new w orld’ o f America, Australasia and southern Africa firmly into the capitalist net, settling them w ith emigrants from Europe and shaping them into centres o f prim ary produce for export to the industrialising world.
