Pre-Roman Britain

The history of a nation’s industry must necessarily date back to pre-historic times and to the earliest stages of national life. For the history of industry is the history of civilisation, and a nation’s economic development must, to a large extent, underlie and influence the course of its social and political progress. Hence it has been aptly remarked ¹ that there is no fact in a nation’s history but has some traceable bearing on the industry of the time, and no fact that can be altogether ignored as if it were unconnected with industrial life. “The progress of mankind is written in the history of its tools;” ² and to the economic historian the transition from the axehead of stone to that of bronze is quite as important as a change of dynasty; and certainly, in its way, it is as serious an industrial revolution as the change from the hand-loom to machinery. There are, indeed, few studies more interesting than that in which we watch how a nation developes in economic progress, passing from one stage of industrial activity to another, till at length it reaches the varied and multitudinous complexity of toil that forms our present system of industry and commerce. During this progress the necessities of its trade and manufactures bring it into contact with the politics of other nations in a manifold and often a curious variety of ways, and thus political history gains fresh interest and a clearer light from causes which, in themselves, are often neglected as obscure or insignificant.