ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the important changes to the economy of Britain during the period. The most dramatic change was the increase in speed and efficiency of transport, but other developments affected every aspect of the industrial and agricultural life of Britain, and these were to have profound effects at all levels of British society. Historical background
The railways
Coal
Iron and steel
Textiles
Was there a depression in the 1870s?
Overseas investment
Retail
Population
Agriculture
Chemical industries
Finance and banking
Social conditions
EssaysThe decline of the canals
The development of the railways
Financing the railways
The impact of the railways
Women in industry
Railways and foreign policy
British exports
The depression of the 1870s and 1880s
Urbanisation
SourcesTroubles and advances in the development of the railways
The problem of foreign competition
SkillsRole play
Making sense of numbers
Chronology|
1846 |
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Repeal of the Corn Laws, confirming Britain as a ‘free trade’ economy |
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1847 |
Institution of Mechanical Engineers established |
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1848 |
Cambridge established a Faculty of Natural Sciences; Oxford did so in 1852 |
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1851 |
The Crimean War began and saw the use of railways to supply the armies |
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1853 |
Smallpox vaccination of infants compulsory |
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1854 |
Cardwell’s Railway Act |
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1857 |
Bank crisis |
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1860 |
Metropolitan Gas Act passed |
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1861 |
Civil War began in the USA, reducing the availability of raw cotton |
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1863 |
First Alkali Act: first attempt to deal with air pollution |
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1865 |
Transatlantic cable link laid |
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1870 |
First all-metal bicycle patented |
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1872 |
Mines Regulation Act limited boys under 16 to 54 hours per week, which in effect cut the hours of all workers in the pits. |
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1873 |
First railway carriage lavatory |
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1879 |
Worst year of the 1870s agricultural depression |
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1880 |
First refrigerated meat arrived in Britain from Australia |
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1881 |
First electric power station, at Godalming, Surrey; also commercial production of electric light bulbs began |
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1887 |
Coal Mines Regulation Act |
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1888 |
Royal Commission on the railways |
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1889 |
Technical Institutions Act |
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1893 |
First female factory inspector appointed |
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1899 |
First international radio message |
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1899–1901 |
Use of railways in South African War |
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1902 |
The prime minister, Lord Salisbury, purchased a motor car |
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1904 |
First electric railway (Tyneside) |
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1909 |
Trade Boards Act fixed wages and conditions in some of the ‘sweated’ trades |
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1909 |
First cross-channel aeroplane crossing |
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1914–1918 |
Canals, railways and coal mines nationalised for the duration of the war |
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Women working and dilution of labour accepted in many formerly skilled trades |
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1920 |
Canals, railways and coal mines returned to private ownership |
