The growth of hospitals in eighteenth-century England

Transition from one period to another is gradual, and no arbitrary date marks change, but because England in the eighteenth century was a meeting point between an agricultural age and industrial change it became an age of ‘Challenge, Contrast and Compromise’. ¹ Challenge came from all quarters. The seventeenth century had created new markets, the financial importance of England had increased, and for the first time the economies of Europe were influenced by extra-European trade. Now, instead of being a country that fed itself and used any surplus energy to produce wealth from industry, England became dependent on selling its manufactured goods abroad in order to import food for the home market. Money had a new meaning: it was no longer merely a means of exchange; more and more it was needed as capital.