Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CHAPTER I Introduction
- CHAPTER II Economic conditions
- CHAPTER III Science and technology
- CHAPTER IV Social and political thought
- CHAPTER V Literature
- CHAPTER VI Art and architecture
- CHAPTER VII Education
- CHAPTER VIII The armed forces
- CHAPTER IX Political and social developments in Europe
- CHAPTER X The German empire
- CHAPTER XI The French Republic
- CHAPTER XII Austria-Hungary, Turkey and the Balkans
- CHAPTER XIII Russia
- CHAPTER XIV Great Britain and The British Empire
- CHAPTER XV India, 1840–1905
- CHAPTER XVI China
- CHAPTER XVII Japan
- CHAPTER XVIII The United States
- CHAPTER XIX The States of Latin America
- CHAPTER XX International Relations
- CHAPTER XXI Rivalries in the Mediterranean, The Middle East, and Egypt
- CHAPTER XXII The partition of Africa
- CHAPTER XXIII Expansion in the Pacific and the Scramble for China
- CHAPTER XXIV The United States and The Old World
- References
CHAPTER II - Economic conditions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- CHAPTER I Introduction
- CHAPTER II Economic conditions
- CHAPTER III Science and technology
- CHAPTER IV Social and political thought
- CHAPTER V Literature
- CHAPTER VI Art and architecture
- CHAPTER VII Education
- CHAPTER VIII The armed forces
- CHAPTER IX Political and social developments in Europe
- CHAPTER X The German empire
- CHAPTER XI The French Republic
- CHAPTER XII Austria-Hungary, Turkey and the Balkans
- CHAPTER XIII Russia
- CHAPTER XIV Great Britain and The British Empire
- CHAPTER XV India, 1840–1905
- CHAPTER XVI China
- CHAPTER XVII Japan
- CHAPTER XVIII The United States
- CHAPTER XIX The States of Latin America
- CHAPTER XX International Relations
- CHAPTER XXI Rivalries in the Mediterranean, The Middle East, and Egypt
- CHAPTER XXII The partition of Africa
- CHAPTER XXIII Expansion in the Pacific and the Scramble for China
- CHAPTER XXIV The United States and The Old World
- References
Summary
Abrupt change is not characteristic of the economic process in history. In most respects even the nineteenth-century world was working out, on a much larger scale, the logic of methods inherited from an earlier age. What distinguished the nineteenth century increasingly from earlier centuries and explains the pace, rhythm and scale of its economic growth was the extent to which international trade and investment came to transmit the very means of economic change themselves from the forward to the backward areas. The sale, or more often the loan, of capital equipment—railways, engines, rolling-stock, mining gear, pumps, machinery—accelerated the rate at which the economic arrangements and social structures of the less advanced nations were transformed. As trade came to imply not only the exchange of goods, but the permanent nexus of investment, a new type of politico-economic relationship emerged, rich in material promise and heavy with political risk. Much of the foreign trade of Britain, still the leading economic power in most respects in 1900, rested upon contracts designed (in the most simplified terms) to enable nations which could not afford to pay for capital equipment on current account to borrow it. The supposition underlying these transactions was that the opportunities they created would enable the borrower to pay a return to the lender.
This phenomenon was not new in 1870; but it owed its new prominence to the period of railway building which had begun in continental Europe before the mid-century. This was still going on vigorously in the fourth quarter, both through new construction and the replacement of old iron track by steel.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The New Cambridge Modern History , pp. 49 - 75Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1962
References
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