ABSTRACT
Kondratieff dated the upswing phase of the second long wave from 1844/51 to 1870/75, and thus the chronology of the mid-Victorian boom fits neatly with the timing of a second Kondratieff upswing, stretching from the mid-1840s to the early 1870s. The coalironsteam technology, based on coal as the key factor, was now to diffuse rapidly across a wider range of industries during the upswing of the second Kondratieff, and also motive power spread to tractive power with the continued expansion of the railways. In absolute terms, therefore, there was a rapid increase in the production of key sectors of the industrial economy and this created a cluster of interrelated industrial activity. In regions specializing in heavy industry, for example the North East coast and the Clyde region of Scodand, economic integration grew apace in the mid-Victorian decades. The increasing imports of food into Britain after the repeal of the Corn Laws were crucial to sustaining growth.
