ABSTRACT
IT is tempting to look on the repeated invocations of extendedgovernmental action in economic matters in the early years ofthe twentieth century as symptoms of the emergence of a new relationship between politics and economics, to be contrasted with a conveniently labelled state of laissez-faire, prevailing at least until the eighteen-seventies. Both the recentness of much economic and social legislation and the abundance of mid-Victorian advocacy of minimal government lend point to the contrast; and it is undeniable that there had been a change that was both real and significant. Yet a consideration of the impact of central government and local authorities on economic affairs in the 'seventies, or a little earlier, suggests that it was much more substantial than the phrase 'laissez-[aire' implies and that for a generation past it had been increasing in new ways even as it receded in some old ones.
