ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the origins and growth in demand for contractors for public works in Great Britain and Ireland in the 18th century and the transformation of contractors from small-scale trade-based local enterprises to businesses capable of carrying out various projects across increasing geographic distances for a number of clients. It discusses the emergence of well-capitalized national enterprises around 1800 and the development of the enormous enterprises of the leading railway contractors of the 1840s. The emergence of British public works contractors as a global phenomenon in tandem with early technological leadership - particularly with railways and their links to overseas investment - is described. The need for more work on such relationships and on the familial and cultural links of the leading contractors is highlighted.
